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ADVICE

/^Ay.

TO THE

PRIVILEGED ORDERS

SEVERAL S'TATES OF EUROPE,

Vi-

RXSUITING FROM TH«

NECESSITY AND PROPRIETY

A GENERAL REVOLUTION IN THE
PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNMENT.

PART I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J.JOHNSON, IN ST. PAUL's CHURCH-YARD,

'792.

y.^S'^'

ADVERTISEMENT.

Speedily win be publlfhed the fecond
part of this work ; in which will be treated
the four laft fubjeds mentioned in the plan,
as explained in the Introduction : viz. Reve-
nue and Public Expenditure, Means of Sub-
Jijience, J^iterature, Sciences and Arts, War
and Peace,

ERRATUM.
Page 8> line 2 from bottom, for tr read of, -

. .^

ADVICE

TO THE

PRIVILEGED ORDERS.

INTRODUCTIOJt^^C^A -.

» «»/

nn H E French Revolution is at laft not only ac-
connplilhed, but its accomplifhment univer-
fally acknowledged, beyond contradidion abroad,
or the power of retraftion at home. It has finifh-
ed its work, by organizing a government, on prin-
ciples approved by reafonj an objed long con-
templated by different writers, but never before
exhibited, in this quarter of the globe. The ex-
periment now in operation will folve a queftion of
the firfl: magnitude in human affairs: Whether
theory and Practice, which always agree together
in things of (lighter moment, are really to remain
eternal enemies in the highefl concerns of men ?

B The

( 2 )

The change of government in France is, pro-'
pcrly fpeaking, a renovation of fociety ; an object
peculiarly fitted to hurry the mind into a field of
thought, which can fcareely be limited by the con-
cerns of a nation, or the improvements of an age#
As there is a tendency in human nature to imita-
tion ; and, as all the apparent caufes exift in moft
of the governments of the world, to induce the
people to wifh for a fimilar change, it becomes
interefting to the caufe of humanity, to take a de-
liberate view of the real nature and extent of this
change, and find what are the advantages and di(^
advantages to be expe£bed from it..

There is not that necromancy in politics, which
prevents our forefeeing, with tolerable certainty,
what is to be the refult of operations fo univerfal,
in which all .the people concur. Many truths arc
as perceptible when firfl prefented to the mind, as
an age or a world of experience could make them ^
others require only an indirect and collateral ex-
perience J fome demand an experience direct and
pofitive.

U

( 3 )

It Is happy for human nature, that in morals ws
have much to do with this firft clafs of truths, lefs
with the fecond, and very little with the third ;
while in phyfics we are perpetually driven to the
flow procefs of patient and pofitive experience.

The Revolution in France certainly comes re-
commended to us under one afpe(5t which renders
it at firft view extremely inviting i it is the work
of argument and rational convi<5tion, and not of
the fword. The ultima ratio regum had nothing to
do with it. It was an operation defigned for the
benefit of the people j it originated in the people,
and was conduced by the people. It had there-
fore a legitimate origin ; and this circumftance
entitles it to our ferlous contemplation, on two
accounts : becaufe there is fomething venerable in
the idea^ and becaufe other nations, in fimilar cir-
cumftances, will certainly be difpofcd to imitate it.

I (ball therefore examine the nature and conic*
quences of a fimilar revolution in government, as
it will affe6t the following principal objefts, which

B 2 make

make up the affairs of nations in the prcfent llat«r
of Europe :

J.

%

I. The feudal Syftem,

II. The Churcli,

III. The Military,

IV. The Adminidration of Jufticc^

V. Revenue and public Expenditure^

VI. The Means of Subfiftence,

VII. Literature, Sciences and Arts,

VIII. War and Peace.

The interefts of kings and hereditary fucceflion
will not be forgotten in this arrangement j they
will be treated with the privileged orders undef
the feveral heads to which their different claims
belong.

It muft be of vaft importance to all the clalTe*
of fociety, as it now ftands claflfed in Europe, to

calculate

( 5 )

calculate before hand what they are to gain or to
lofe by the approaching change ; that, like pru-
dent (lock-jobbers, they may buy in or fell out,
-according as this great event fhall affedl them.

Philolbphers and contemplative men, who. may
think themfelves difinterefled fpeflators of fo great
a political drama, will do well to confider how far
the cataflrophe is to be beneficial or detrimental
to the human race ; in order to determine whether
in confcience they ought to promote or difcourage,
accelerate or retard ir, by the publication of their
opinions. It is true, the work was fet on foot by
this fort of men 5 but they haye rjQt all been of
the fame opinion relative to the beft organization
pf the governing power, nor how far the reform of
abufes ought to extend. Montefquieu, Voltaire,
and many other refpeflable authorities, have ac-
credited the principle, that republicanifm is not
convenient for a great (late. Rou(reau and others
take no notice of the di{lin<5lion between great and
fmall dates, in deciding, that this is the only go-
vernment proper to enfure the happinefs, and fup-
port the dignity of man. Of the former opinioi^

]B 3 was

( 6 )

was a great majority of the conftituting national
afTcmbly of France. Probably not many years
will pafs, before a third opinion will be univerfally
adopted, never to be laid afidc ; That the repub-
lican principle is not only proper and fafe for the
government of any people i but, that its propriety
and fafety are in proportion to the magnitude of
the fociety and the extent of the territory.

Among fincere enquirers after truth, all general
queftions on this fubjeft reduce themfelves to this ?
Whether men are to perform their duties by an
cafy choice or an expenfive cheat ; or, whether our
reafon be given us to be improved or ftifled, to
render us greater or kfs than brutes, to increafc
our happincfs or aggravate our mifery.

Among thofe whofe anxieties arife only from in-
tereft, the enquiry is, how their privileges or their
profeflTions are to be afFe6led by the new order of
things. Thefe form a clafs of men refpeftable
both for their numbers and their fenfibility j it is
our duty to attend to their cafe. I fincerely hope
to adminifler fome confolation to them in the
6 courfc

J

( 7 )

courfe of this eflay. And though I have a better
opinion of their philanthropy, than political oppo-
nents generally entertain of each other, yet I do
not altogether rely upon their prefumed fympathy
with their fellow-citizens, and their fuppofed wil-
lingnefs to facrifice to the public good -, but I hope
to convince them, that the eftablifhment of general
liberty will be lefs injurious to thofe who now live
by abufes, than is commonly imagined j that pro-
teded induftry will produce efFecls far nnore afto-
nilhing than have ever been calculated ; that the
increafe of enjoyments will be fuch, as to ameliorate
the condition of every human creature.

To perfuade this clafs of mankind that it is
neither their duty nor their intercft to endeavour to
perpetuate the ancient forms of government, would
be a high and holy office ; it would be the greateft:
aft of charity to them, as it might teach them to
avoid a danger that is otherwife unavoidable ; it
would preclude the occafion of the people's in-
dulging what is fometimes called a ferocious, dif-
pofition, which is apt to grow upon the revenge of
injuries, and render them lefs harmonious in their

B 4 new

( 8 )

new ftation of citizens; it would prevent the civil
wars, which might attend the infurredtions of the
people, where there Ihould be a great want of
unanimity, — ^for we are not to exped in every
country that mildnefs and dignity which have uni-
formly characterized the French, even in their moft
tumultuous movements * : it would remove every

obftaclc

• Whatever rcafon may be given for the faft, I believe all
thofe who have been witneffes of what are called mobs in France
(during the revolution) will join with me in opinion, that they
were by no means to be compared with Englifh mobs, in point
of indifcriminate ferocity and private plunder. A popular com-
motion in Paris was uniformly diredled to a certain well-ex-
plained objed ; from which it never was known to deviate.
Whether this objeft were to hang a man, to arreft the king, to
intimidate the court, or to break the furniture of a hotel, all
other perfons and all other property, that fell in the way of the
mob, were perfectly fafe.

The truth is, thofe colleftions were compofed of honeft and
induftrious people, who had nothing in view but the public
good. They believed that the caufe of their country required
an execution of juftice more prompt than could be expefted
from any eftablilhed tribunal. Befides, they were in the crifis
of a revolution, when they were fenfible, that the crimes or
their enemies would remain unpunilhed, for want of a known

rule

C 9 )

obftacle and every danger that may feem to attend
that rational fyftem of public felicity to which the
nations of Europe are moving with rapid flrides,
and which in profpeft is fo confoling to the en-
lightened friends of humanity.

To induce the men who now govern the world
to adopt thefe ideas, is the duty of thofe who now
poflefs them. I confefs the tafk at firft view ap-
pears more than Herculean ; it will be thought an
objedl from which the eloquence of the clofet mufi:
Ihrink in defpair, and which prudence would leave
to the more powerful argument of events. But I
believe at the fame time that fome fucccis may be
expededi that though the harveft be great, the

r»jle by whicji they could be judged. Though a violation of
right, is not always a violation of lanjo ; yet, in their opinion,
occafions might exift, when it wodld be dangerous to let it pafs
with impunity.

It is indeed to be hoped, that, whenever mobs in other coiin-
tries (hall be animated by the fame caufe, they will eondudl
themfelves with the fame dignity; and that this Angular
phenomenon will be found not altogether attributable to national
character.

laborers

( lO )

laborers may not be few ; that prejudice anci intcreft
cannot always be relied on to garrifon the mind
againft the aflaults of truth. This belief, ill-
grounded as it may appear, is fufficient to animate
* me in the caufe i and to the venerable hoft of re-
publican writers, who have preceded me in t\\e
difcufiions occafioned by the French revolution,
this belief is my only apology for offering to join
the fraternity, and for thus pradically declaring
my opinion, that they have not exhaufted the
fubjefb.

Two very powerful weapons, the force of reafon
?nd the force of numbers, are in the hands of the
political reformers. While the ufe of the firfl brings
into a£l-ion the fecond, and enfures its co-operation,
it remains a facred duty, impofed on them by the
God of reafon, to wield with dexterity this mild
and beneficent weapon, before recurring to the ufc
of the other J which, though legitimate, may be
lefs harmlefs ; though infallible in operation, may
be kfs glorious in vidqry.

The

( " )

The tyrannies of the world, whatever be the
appellation of the government under which they are
exercifed, are all ariftocr^tical tyrannies. An or-
dinance to plunder and murder, whether it fulmi-
nate from the Vatican, or ileal filently forth from
the Harem j whether it come clothed in the certain
fcience of a Bed of Juftice, or in the legal folemni-
ties of a bench of lawyers ; whether it be purchafed
by the careffes of a woman, or the treafures of a
nation,--p-never confines its effefts to the benefit of
a fingle individual ; it goes to enrich the whole
combination of confpirators, whofe bufinefs it is to
dupe and to govern the nation. It carries its owrt
bribery with itfeif through all its progrefs and con-
nexions,—in its origination, in its enaftion, in its
vindication, in its execution j it is a fertilizing
ftrcam, that waters' and vivifies its happy plants
in the numerous channels of its communication.
Minifters and fecretaries, commanders of armies,
contractors, colleclors and tide-waiters, intendants,
judges and lawyers,— whoever is permitted to drink
of the falutary ftream, — -are all interefted in remov-
ing the obftruftions and in praifing the fountain
from whence it flows.

The

( li )

The ftate of human nature requires that thU
fhould be the cafe. Among beings fo nearly equal
in power and capacity as men of the fame com-
munity are, it is impofTible that a folitary tyrant
Ihould exift. I^aws that are defigned to operate
unequally on fociety, muft offer an exclufive intercft
to a confiderable portion of its members, to enfure
tlieir execution upon the reft. Hence has arifen
the neceffity of that ftrange complication in the
governing power, which has made of politics an
inexplicable fcience j hence the reafon for arming
one clafs of our fellow- creatures with the weapons
of bodily deftruflion, and another with the myf-
terious artillery of the vengeance of heaven j hence
the caufe of what in England is called the inde-
pendence of the judges, and what on the conti^
nent has created a judiciary nobility, a fct of men
who purchafe the privilege of being the profeffw
onal enemies of the people, of felling their deci--
fions to the rich, and of diftributing individual
oppreffion ; hence the fource of thofe Draconian
codes of criminal jurifprudence which enfhrine the
idol Property in a bloody fanfluary, and teach the
modern European, that his life is of lefs value than

the

( '3 )

the flioes on his feet j hence the pofitive difcou-
fagcments laid upon agriculture, manufaftureSi
commerce, and every method of improving the
condition of men j for it is to be obferved, that
in every country the fhackles impofed upon in-»
duftry are in proportion to the degree of general
defpotifm that reigns in the government. This
arifes not only from the greater debility and want
of enterprife in the people, but from the fuperior
neceflity that fuch governments are under, to pre-
vent their fubjedbs from acquiring that eafe and in-
formation, by which they could difcern the evil
and apply the remedy.

To the fame fruitful fource of calamities we arc
to trace that perverfity ' of reafon, which, in go-
vernments where men are permitted to difcufs po-
litical fubjedls, has given rife to thofe perpetual
fliifts of fophiftry by which they vindicate the pre-
rogative of kings. In one age it is the right of
tonquefty in another the divine rights then it comes
to be a compa5f between king and feopky and laft of
all, it is faid to be founded on general conveni-
ence, the good of the whole community. In Eng-
land

( 14 )

land thefc feveral arguments have all had their day j
though it is aftonifliing that the two former could
ever have been the fubjefts of rational debate : the
firft is the logic of the mufquet, and the fecond
of the chalice j the one was buried at Rennimedp
on the flgnature of Magna Charta, the other took
its flight to the continent with James the Second.
The compa(5l of king and people has lain dormant
the greater part of the prcfent century j till it was
roufed from flumber by the French revolution,
and came into the fervice of Mr. Burke.

Hafty men difcover their errors when it is too
late. It had certainly been much more confident
with the temperament of that writer's mind, and
quite as ferviceable to his caufe, to have recalled
the fugitive claim of the divine right of kings. It
would have given a myftic force to his declama-*
tion, afforded him many new epithets, and fur-
nifhed fubjeds perfedly accordant with the copi-
ous charges o{ Jacrihgei atheijm^ murder St ajfajfma-
lions, rapes and plunders with which his three vo-
lumes abound. He then could not have difap-

pointed

( '5 )

pointed his friends by his total want of argument,
as he now docs in his two firft efiays ; for on fuch
a fubjeft no argument could be expected j and in
his third, where it is patiently attempted, he would
have avoided the neceflity of (bowing that he has
none, by giving a different title to bis book j for
the " appeal," inftead of being *' from the new to
the old whigSj" would have been from the nem
whigs to the old tones ; and he might as well have
appealed to Csefar ; he could have found at this
day no court to take cognizance of his caufe.

But the great advantage of this mode of hand-
ling the fubjed would have been, that it could
have provoked no anfwers; the gauntlet might
have been thrown, without a champion to have
taken it up ; and the laft folit;ary admirer oi chi-
valry have retired in negative triumph from t]i«
field.

Mf. Burke/ however, in his defence of royalty,
does not rely on this argument of the compafl.
"Whether it be, that he is conlcious of its futility,-
or that in his rage he forgets that he has ufed it,

he

( i6 )

he is perpetually recurring to the laft ground that
has yet been heard of, on which we are called upon
to confider kings even as a tolerable nuifance, and
to fupport the cxifting forms of government ;
this ground is the general good of the community. It
is faid to be dangerous to pull down fyftems that
arc already formed, or even to attempt to improve
tliem; and it is likewife faid, that, were they
peaceably deftroyed, and we had fociety to build
up anew, it would be beft to create hereditary
kings, hereditary orders, and exclufive privileges.

Thefe are fober opinions, uniting a clafs of rea-
Ibners too numerous and too refpeftable to be
treated with contempt. I believe however that
their number is every day dimiriifhing, and I be-
lieve the example which France will foon be obliged
to exhibit to the world on this fubjeft, will induce
every man to rejed: them, who is not perfonally
and exelufively interefted in their fupport.

The inconfiflency of the conftituting aflembly,
in retaining an hereditary king, armed with an enor-
mous civil lift, to wage war with a popular go-
vernment.

/

( 17 )
vernment, has induced fome perfons to prcdift
the downfall of their conftitution. But this nriea-
fure had a different origin from what is commonly
affigned to it, and will probably have a different
iffue. It was the refult rather of local and tem-
porary circumftances, than of any general belief in
the utility of kings, under any modifications or
limitations that could be attached to the of^ce.

It is to be obferved, firfi^ that the French had
a king upon their hands. This king had always
been confidered as a welUdifpofed man j fo that,
by a fatality fomewhat fingular, though not un-
exampled in regal hijtcry^ he gained the love of
the people, almoft in proportion to the mifchief ■
which he did them. Secondly, their king had very
powerful family connexions, in the fovereigns of
Spain, Auftria, Naples and Sardinia j befides his
relations within the kingdom, whom it was neccf-
fary to attach, if poff;ble, to the interefts of the
community. Thirdly^ the revolution was confi-
dered by all Europe as a high and dangerous ex-
periment. It was neceffary to hide as much as
poffible the appearance of its magnitude frorn the

C eye

( I8 )

eye of the diftant obfcrver. The rciorrncrs con-
fidered it as their duty to produce an internal re-
generation of fociety, rather than an external change
in the appearance of the court i to fct in order the
counting-houfc and the kitchen, before arranging
the drawing-room. This would leave the fove-
reigns of Europe totally without a pretext for in-
terfering ; while it would be confoling to that claft
of philofophers, who ftill believed in the confipa-
tibility of royalty and liberty. Fourthly ^ this de-
cree. That France Jhould have a king, and that he
could do no wrongs was pafled at an early period of
their operations ; when the above reafons were ap-
parently more urgent than they were afterwards,
or probably will ever be again.

From thefe confiderations we may conclude,
that royalty is prcferved in France for reafons which
are fugitive ; that a majority of the conftituting
aflembly did not believe in it, as an abftrad "prin-
ciple ; that a majority of the people will learn to
be difgufted with fo unnatural and ponderous a
deformity in their new edifice, and will foon hew
it off. 6

After

( '9 )

After this improvement ftiall have been made,
a few years experience in the face of Europe, and
on fo great a theatre as that of France; will pro-
bably leave but one opinion in the nriinds of honeft
men, relative to the republican principle, or the
great fimplicity of nature applied to the organi-
zation of fociety.

The example of America would have had great
weight in producing this convi6tion; but it is too
little known to the European reafoner, to be a fub-
je<5t of accurate inveftigation. Befides, the diffe-
rence of circumftances between that country and
the flates of Europe has given occafion for ima-
gining many dillindlions which exift not in fa61:,
and has prevented the application of principles
which are permanently founded in nature, and fol-
low not the trifling variations in the flate of fociety.

But I have not prefcribed to myfelf the tafk of
entering into arguments on the utility of kings, or
of inyeftigating the meaning of Mr. Burke, in
order to compliment him with an additional refu-
tation. My fubjpdl furnilhes a more extenfive
C 2 fcopc.

( ao )

fcopc. It depends not on me, or Mr. Burke, or
any other writer, or dcfcription of writers, to de-
termine the queftion, whether a change of govern-
ment (hall take place, and extend through Europe.
It depends on a much more important clafs of
men, the clafs that cannot write ; and in a great
meafure, on thofe who cannot read. It is to be
decided by men who reafon better without
books, than we do with all the books in the world.
Taking it for granted, therefore, that a general
revolution is at hand, whofe progrefs is irreftjlihJe,
my objedt is to contemplate its probable efFe<5ls,
and to comfort thofe who are affiided at the pro-
(pe6l.

CHAP.

( 21 )

CHAP. I.

Feudal Syjlenu

'TP H E mod prominent feature in the moral
face of Europe, was imprinted upon it by
conqueft. It is the refult of the fubordination ne-
ceflary among military favages, on their becoming
cultivators of the Ibil which they had defolated,
and making an advantageous ufe of fuch of the
inhabitants as they did not choofe to maflacre, and
could not fell to foreigners for flaves,

The relation thus eftablilhed between the officers
find the foldiers, between the viftors and the van-
quiihedj and between them all and the lands which
jhey were to cultivate, modified by the experience
of unlettered ages, has obtained the narpe of the
J^f udal Syftem, and may be confidered as the foun-
C 3 dation

( " )

dation of all the political inftitutions in this quar-
ter of the world. The claims refuking to parti-
cular clafles of men, under this modification of
fociety, arc called Feudal Rights j and to the in-
dividual pofTcflbrs they are either nominal or real,
conveying an empty title or a fubftantial profit.

My intention is not to enter on the details of
this fyftem, as a lawyer, or to trace its progrefs
^vith the accuracy of an hiftorian, and fliow its pe-
culiar fitnefs to the rude ages of fociety which
gave it birth. But, viewing it as an ancient edi-
fice, whofc foundation, worn away by the current
of events, can no longer fupport its weight, I
would fkctch a few drawings, to fhow the ftyle of
its archireflure, and compare it with the model of
the new building to be ereded in its place.

The philofopby of the Feudal Syftem, is all that
remains of it worthy of our contemplation. This
1 will attempt to trace in fome of its leading points,
leaving the praftical part to fall, with its ancient
founders and its modern admirers, into the pe^ce-

( ^3 )

flil gulph of oblivion ; to which I willi it a Ipeedy
and an unobftrudled pafiTage.

The original objedl of this inflitution was un-
doubtedly, what it was alledgcd to be, the prefer-
vation of turbulent focieties, in which men are
held together but by feeble ties -, and it effeded
its purpofe by uniting the perfonal intereft of the
head of each fannily, with the perpetual fafety of
the ftate. Thus far the purpofe was laudable, and
the means extremely well calculated for the end.
\ But it was the fortune of this fyftem to attach
.^ itfelf to thole paffions of human nature which vary
,^ not with the change of circumftances. While na-
i i tional motives ceafed by degrees to require its
^ continuance, family motives forbade to lay it afide.
.^^ The fame progreflive improvements in fociety,
which rendered military tenures and military titles
firfl unnecefTary and then injurious to the general
intereft, at the fame tim.e fharpened the avarice,
and piqued the honor of thofe who pofleffed them,
to preferve the exclufive privileges which rendered
them thus diftinguifhed. And thefe privileges,
united with the operations of the church, have

C 4 founded

( 24 )

founded and fupported the derpotlfms of Europe
in all their divifions, combinations and refine-
ments.

Feudal Rights are cither territorial or perfcnal,
I Ihall divide them into thefe two clafifes, for the
fake of bellowing a few obfervations upon each.

The pernicious efFcds of the fyftem on territo-
rial tenures are inconceivably various and great.
In a legal view, it has led to thofe intricacies
and vexations, which we find attached to every
circumftance t)f real property, which have perr
plexed the fcience of civil jurifprudence, which
have perpetuated the ignorance of the people rela-
tive to the adminiftration of juftice, rendered ne-
cefTary the intervention of lawyers, and multiplied
the means of oppreflion. But, in a political view,
its confequences are ftill more ferioijs, and demand
.,a particular confideration.

The fkft quality of the feudal tenure is to con-
fine the defcendible property to the eldeji male ijfue.
To fay that this is contrary to nature, is hut a

feeble

C ^'J ).

feeble exprcfilon. So abominable is its operation,
that it has feduced and perverted nature ; her voice
is ftifled, intereft itfelf is laid afleep, and nothing
but the eloquence of an incomprehenfible pride is
heard on the occafion. You will hear father and
mother, younger brothers and fifters, rejoice in
this provifion of the lav/j the former configning
their daughters to the gloomy prifon of a convent,
and their younger fons to the church or the army,
to enfure their celibacy ] that no remnant of the
family may remain but the heir of the edate en-
tire ; the latter congratulating each other, that the
elder brother will tranfmit unimpaired the title and
the property, while they themfelves are content to
perilh in the obfcurity of their feveral deftinations.
It is probable that, in another age, a tale of this
kind will fcarcely gain credir, and that the
tear of fenfibility may be fpared by a difbelief of
the fafl. It is however no creature of the ima-
gination ; it happened ev^ry day in France pre-
vious to the revolution ; I have feen it with mj
own eyes and heard it with my own ears; it is now
to be feen and heard in mofl other catholic coun-p
trie§,

Bur
J

( i6 )

But other points of view (how this difpofition of
the law to be ftill more reprchenfible in the eye of
political philofophy. It fwells the inequality of
wealth, which, even in the beft regulated fociety,
is but too confiderable i it habituates the people
to believe in an unnatural inequality in the rights
of men, and by this means prepares them for fer-
vility and opprefllon ; it prevents the improvement
of lands, and impedes the progrefs of induftry and
cultivation, which are beft promoted on fmall ef-
tates, where proprietors cultivate for themfelves j
it difcourages population, by inducing to a life of
celibacy. — But 1 ihall fpeak of celibacy when I
{peak of the church.

Whether men are born to govern, or to obey,
or to enjoy equal liberty, depends not on the ori-
ginal capacity of the mind, but on the injlin£l of
a}idlogyt or the hah'tt of thinking. When children
of the fame family are taught to believe in the un-
conquerable diflindlions of birth among themfelves,
they are completely fitted for a feudal govern-
ment ; becaufe their minds arc familiarifed wirh
3^11 the gradations and degradations that fuch a gOt

vernmene

( ^7 )

vcrnment requires. The birth-right of domineer-
ing is not more readily claimed on the one hand,
than it is acknowledged on the other ; and the
Jamaica planter is not more habitually convinced
that an European is fuperior to an African, than
he is that a lord is better than himfelf.

This fubjedl deferves to be placed in a light,
in which no writer, as far as I know, has yet con-
fidered it. When a pcrfon was repeating to Fon-
tenelle the common adage V habitude efi la/econde
nature^ the philofopher replied, Et faites moi la
grace de me dire^ quelle eji la premiere. When we
aflert that nature has eflablifhed inequalities among
men, and has thus given to fome the right of go-
verning others, or when we maintain the contrary
of this pofition, we Ihould be careful to define
what fort of nature we mean, whether the frji or
Jecond nature \ or whether we mean that there is
but one. A mere favage, Colocolo * for inftance,
would decide the queftion of equality by a trial of
)?odiIy ftrength, defignating the man that could

^ Spe the Araucana of Ercilla.

lift

( 28 )

life the hcaviefl: beam to be the legiflator ; and
unlefs all men could lift the fame beam, they could
not be equal in their rights. Ariftotle would give
the preference to him that excelled in mental ca-
pacity. UlyfTcs would make the decifion upon a
compound ratio of both. But there appears to
me another ftep in this ladder, and that the babii
cf thinking is the only fafe and univerfal criterion to
which, in pradlice, the queftion can be referred.
Indeed, when intereft is laid afide, it is the only one
to which, in civilized ages, it ever is referred. Wc
never fubmit to a king, bccaufe he is ftronger than
we in bodily force, nor becaufe he is fuperior in
underftanding or in information i but becaufe wc
believe him born to govern, or at leaft, becaufe ^
majority of the fociety believes it.

This habit of thinking has {b much of nature in
it, it is fo undiftinguilhable from the indelible
marks of the man, that it is a perfedly fafe foun-
dation for any fyftem that we may chbofe to build
upon it ; indeed it is the only foundation, for it is
the only point of conta(5t by which men commu-
nicate as moral afTociates. As a praiflical pofition

there-

( ^9 )

therefore, and as relating to almoft all places and
alnaoft all tinnes, in which the experiment has yet
been made, Ariftotle was as right in teaching,
^hatjome are horn to command^ and others to be com-
manded^ as the national aflembly was in declaring.
That men are born and always continue free and equal
in rejpe5l to their rights. The latter is as apparently
falfe in the diet of Ratifbon, as the former is in
the hall of the Jacobins.

Abftrafledly confidered, there can be no doubt
of the unchangeable truth of the afTembly's de-
claration i and they have taken the right method
to make it a -praElical truth, by publifhing it to
the world for difcuHTion. A general belief //'^/ it
is a truthy makes it at once praftical, confirms it
in one nation, and extends it to others.

A due attention to the aftonidiing effeils that
are wrought in the world by the habit of thinking,
will ferve many valuable purpofes. I cannot there-
fore difmifs the fubjedl fo foon as I intended ; but
will mention one or two inftances of thefe elfedrs,

and

( 30 )

and leave the refledlion of the reader to make the
application to a thoufand others.

FirJIy It is evident that all the arbitrary fyftems
in the world are founded and fupported on this^/Jr-
cond nature of man, in counteraclion of the firji^
Syftems which diftort and crufh and fubjugatc
every thing that we can fuppofe original and cha-
ra6beriftic in man, as an undiftorted being. It fuf-
tains the moft abfurd and abominable theories of
religion, and honors them with as many martyrs
as it does thofe that are the moft peaceful and
beneficent.

But Jeccndly^ we find for our confolation, that it
will likewife fupport fyftems of equal liberty and
national happinefs. In the United States of Ame-
rica, the fcience of liberty is univerfally under-
ftood, felt and praflifed, as much by the fimple as
the wife, the weak as the ftrong. Their deep-
rooted and inveterate habit of thinking is, that all
wen are equal in their rights y that it is impojjible to
make them otherwife\ and this being their undif-
turbed belief, they have no conception how any

man

( 31 )

man in his fenfes can entertain any other. This
point once fettled, every thing is fettled. Many
operations, which in Europe have been confidcred
as incredible tales or dangerous experiments^ are
but the infallible confequences of this great prin-
ciple. The firft of thefe operations is the bufmejs
of ek^ioriy which with that people is carried on
with as nnuch gravity as their daily labor. There
is no jealoufy on the occafion, nothing lucrative irt
office i any man in fociety may attain to any place
in the government, and may exercife its fun^ions.
They believe that there is nothing more difficult
in the managennent of the affairs of a nation, thaa
the affairs of a family ; that it only requires more
hands. They believe that it is the juggle of keep-
ing up impofitions to blind the eyes of the vulgar,
that conflitutes the intricacy of flare. Banilh the
myfticifm of inequality, and you banilh almoft all
the evils attendant on human nature.

The people, being habituated to the eledion of
all kinds of officers, the magnitude of the office
makes no difficulty in the cafe. The prefident of
the United States, who has more power while in

offixe

( o2 )
office than fome of the kings of Europe, is chofen
with as little connrnotion as a churchwarden. There
is a public fcrvice to be performed, and the peo-
ple fay who fliall do it. The fervant feels honored
with the confidence repofed in him, and generally
cxprefies his gratitude by a faithful performance.

Another of thefe operations is making every
citizen a foldier, and every Ibldicr a citizen i not
only permitting every man to arm, but obliging him
to arm. This fa(5V, told in Europe previous to tl^
French revolution, would have gained little credit ;
or at leafl it Would have been regarded as a mark
of an uncivilized people, extremely dangerous to
a well ordered fociety. Men who build fyftems on
an inverfion' of nature, arc obliged to invert every
thing tliat is to make part of that fyftem. It is
lecaufe the people are civilizedj that they are vjitb
fnfety armed. It is an effed: of their confcions
dignity, as citizens enjoying eqi:al rights, that they
wifli not to invade the rights of otliers. The dan-
ger (where .there is any) from armed citizens, is
only to the governmcnti not to the Jcciety -, and as
Jong as they have nothing to revenge in the go-'

vernment

( 33 )

vernment (which they cannot have while it is in
their own hands) there are many advantages in
their being accuftomed to the iile of arms, and no
poflible difadvantage.

Power, habitually in the hands of a whole com-*
munity, lofes all the ordinary aflbciated ideas of
power. The exercife of power is a relative term ;
it fuppofes an oppofition,-^fomething to operate
upon. We perceive no exertion of power in the
motion of the planetary fyftem, but a very (Irong
one in the movement of a whirlwind j it is becaufe
we fee obftruftions to the latter, but none to the
former. Where the government is fioi in the hands
of the people, there you find oppofition, you per-
ceive two contending interefts, and get an idea of
the exercife of power ; and whether this power be
in the hands of the government or of the people,
or whether it change from fide to fide, it is always
to be dreaded. But the word people in America
has a different meaning from what it has in Eu-
rope. It there means the whole community, and
comprehends every human creature ; here it means
fomething elfe, more difficult to define.

D Another

( 3* )

Another confequence of the habitual idea of
equality, is the facility of changing the firu^ure of
their government whenever and as often as the fo-
ciety fhall think there is any thing in it to amend.
As Mr. Burke has written no " refledions on the
revolution" in America, the people there have
never yet been told that they had no right " to
frame a government for themfelves;" they have
therefore done much of this bufinefs, without ever
affixing to it the idea of " facrilege" or " ufurpa-
tion," or any other term of rant to be found in that
gentleman's vocabulary.

Within a few years the fifteen dates have no*
only framed each its own ftate-conftitution, and
two fuccefTive federal conftitutions ; but fince the
fettlement of the prefent general government in
the year 1789, three of the dates, Pennfylvania,
South-Carolina and Georgia, have totally new mo-
deled their ov/n. And all this is done without the
lead confufion ; the operation being fcarcely known
beyond the limits of the ftate where it is perform*
cd. Thus they are in the habit of " choofmg their
own governors,'* of " tajhiering them for miJcondu5ly*

of

( 2S )

of "framing a government for themfehesy^ and all
thofe abominable things, the mere naming of which,
in Mr. Burke's opinion, has polluted the pulpit in
the Old Jewry.

But it is faid, Thefe things will do very well for
America, where the people are lefs numerous, lels
indigent, and better inftruded j but they will nOt
apply to Europe. This objeftion deferves a reply,
not bccaufe it is folid, but becaufe it is falhionable.
It may be anfwered, that fome parts of Spain,
much of Poland, and almoft the whole of Ruflia,
are lefs peopled than the fettled country in the
United States; that poverty and ignorance are
effe^s of flavery rather than its caufes ; but the beft
anfwer to be given, is the example of France. To
the event of that revolution I will trull the argu-
ment. Let the people have time to become
thoroughly and foberly grounded in the doflrine
oi equality i and there is no danger of oppreflion
cither from government or from anarchy. Very
little inftruftion is neceflary to teach a man his
rights ; and there is no perfon of common inteU
kds in the moft ignorant corner of Europe, but
P 7- receives

( 36 )
receives Icflbns chough, if they were of the proper
kindi For writing and reading are not indifpen-
fible to the objed ; it is thinking right which makes
them aft right. Every child is taught to repeat
about fifty Latin prayers, which fet up the Pope,
the Bifliop, and the King, as the trinity of his ado-
ration ; he is taught that the -powers that he are
crdained of God, and therefore the foldier quartered
in the parifti has a right to cut his throat. Half
this inftru6lion, upon oppofite principles, would go
a great way j in that cafe Nature would be aflifted,
while here fhe is counterafted. Engrave it on the
heart of a man, that all men are equal in rights, and
that the government is their own, and then perfuade
him to fell his crucifix and buy a mufquet, — and
you have made him a good citizen.

Another confequence of a fettled belief in the
equality of rights, is, that under this belief there is
no danger from Anarchy. This word has likewifc
acquired a different meaning in America from
what we read of it in books. In Europe it means
confufion, attended with mobs and carnage, where
the innocent perilh with the guiit)\ But it is very

different

(37 )

different where a country is ufed to a reprefentative
government, though it Ihould have an interval of
no government at all. Where the people at large
feel and know that they can do tpery thing by
themfelves perfonally, they really do nothing by
themfelves perfonally. In the heat of the Ame-
rican revolution, when the people in fome ftates
were for a long time without the leaft fhadow of
law or government, they always a£ted by com-
mittees and reprefentation. This they myft call
anarchy, for they know no other.

Thefe are materials for the formation of govern-
ments, which need not be dreaded, though dif-
jointed and laid afunder to make fome repairs.
They are deep-rooted habits of thinking, which
almoft change the moral nature of man ; they ar©
principles as much unknown to the ancient repub-
lics as to the modern monarchies of Europe.

We muft not therefore rely upon fyftems drawn

from the experimental reafonings of Ariftotle, when

we find them contradicted by what we feel to be

;lje eternai truth of nature, and fee brought to

i P 3 the

C 3» >

the tcft of our own experience. Ariftotle was cer-
tainly a great politician j and Claudius Ptolemy
was a great geographer j but the latter has faid
not a word o^Ainerica, the largeft quarter of the
globe i nor the former, q{ reprefentative republics,
the refource of afflicted humanity.

Since I have brought thefe two great lumina-
ries of fcience fo near together, I will keep them
in company a moment longer, to Ihow the ftrangc
partiality that we may retain for one fuperftition
after having laid afide another, though they arc
built on fimilar foundations. Ptolemy wrote a
fyftem of aftronomy ; in which he taught, among
other things, that the earth was the centre of the
univerfe, and that the heavenly bodies moved
round ir. This fyftem is now taught (to the ex-
clufion by anathema of all others) in Turkey, Ara»
bia, Perfia, Palcftine, Egypt, and wherever the
doftrines of Mahomet are taught; while at the
fame time, and with the fame reverence, the politics
o£ Ariftotle are taught at the univerfity of Oxford.
The- ground which fupports the one is, that the
fun ftopt its courfc at the command of Jofhua,
6 which

i 39 )

which it could not have done, had it not been in
motion ; and the other, that fbe powers that he are
ordained of God, Mention to a Mu|[rulman the
Copernican fyftem, and you might a4^,ell Ipeak to
Mr. Burke about the rights of man / they both
call you an atheift. — But I will proceed with thtf »:"*^
feudal fyftem. ^ •

The next quality of a feudal tenure is what is
commonly called on the continent the right of
Jubfiitutwrii in the Englifh law, known by the name
o( entail Of all the methods th^t have yet been
difcovered to prevent men from enjoying the ad-
vantages that nature has laid before them, this is
the moft extraordinary, and in many refpe6ts the
moft effedbual. There have been fuperftitions en-
tertained by rnany nations relative to property in
lands i rendering them more difficult of alienation
than other pofleflions, and confequently, lefs pro-
duflive. Such was the ^ui retraSius of the Ro-
mans, the family-right of redemption, and the ab-
folute reftoration once in fifty years among the
Jews, fimilar regulations among the andient Egyp-
P 4, tians.

( 40 )

tians, and laws to the fame purpofe under the go-
vernment of the Incas in Peru.

Thefe were all calculated to perpetuate family
diftindlions, and to temper the minds of men to
an ariftocratical fubordination. But none of them
were attended with the barbarous exclufion of
younger brothers j nor had they the prefumption
to put it into the power of a dying man, who
could not regulate the difpofition of his fandals
fpr one hour, to fay to all mankind thenceforward
to the end of time, " Touch not my inheritance !
I will that this trad of country, on which I have
taken my pleafure, fhall remain to the wild beafts
and to the fovyls of heaven ; that one man only of
each generation (hall exift upon it i that all the reft,
even of my own pofterity, fhall be driven out
hence as foon as borns and that the inheritor him-
felf fhall not increafe his enjoyments by alienating
a part to ameliorate the reft."

There might have been individual madmen in
all ages, capable of exfrejftng a defire of this kind ;

buc

( 41 )

but for whole nations, for many centuries together,
to agree to reverence and execute fuch hoftile tefta-
ments as thefe, comported not with the wifdom of
the ancients j it is a fuicide of fociety, referved for
the days of chivalry,— to fupport the governments
of modern Europe. «

Sir Edward Coke fhould have Ipared his pane-
gyric on the parliament of Edward the firfl: as the
fathers of the law of entailments. He quotes with
fingular pleafure the words of Sir William Herle,
who informs us that " King Edward I. was the
" wifeft king that ever was, and they were fagc
" men who made this ftatute." Whatever wif-
dom there is in the ftatute, is of an elder growth.
It is a plant of genuine feudal ejctraftion brought
into England by the Normans or Saxons, or fome
other conquerors ; and though fettled as common
law, it began to be difregarded and defpifed by the
judicial tribunals, as a fenfe of good policy pre-
vailed. But the progrefs of liberality was arrefted
by that parliament, and the law of entailments
pafTed into the ftatute of Weftminfter the fecond.

This

( 42 )

This was confidered as law in AmeHca, prcvi-'
Ous to the revolution. But that epoch of light
and liberty has freed one quarter of the world from
this miferable appendage of Gothicifm j and France
has now begun to break the fhackles from another
quarter, where they were morfc flrongly riveted.
The fimple deftruflion of thefe two laws, of e-w/^i/-
ment znd primogeniture y if you add to it the freedom
cf/be p'efsy will enfure the continuance of liberty
in any country where it is once eftabliflied.

Other territorial rights, peculiar to the feudal
tenure, are lefs general in their operation, though
almoft infinite in their number and variety. Not
tf current of water, nor arnill-leat, nor a fi{h-p6nd,
nor a foreft, nor the dividing line of a village or a
farm,' but gives name to and fupports fome feig-
neurial impofition j befides the numberlefs claims
predicated upon all the poffible adions and cere-
monies that pafs, or are fuppofcd to pafs, between
the great lord and the little lord, and between the
little lord and the lefs lord, and between hrm and
the Lord knows whom. The national aflcmbly in
one decree fupprefled about one hundred and fifty

{ 43 )

of thefe taxes by name, befides a general fwecp-
ing claufe in the adl, which perhaps deftroyed
as many more, the names of which no man could
report.

One general character will apply to all thefe
impofitions : they are a difcouragement to agri-
culture, an embarraffment to commerce,— » they
humiliate one part of the community, fwell the
pride of the other, and are a real pecuniary difad-
vantage to both.

But it is time to pay our refpedls to thofe feudal
claims that we call ■perjonal. The firft of thefe is
allegiance ^-^m. its genuine Gothic fenfe, called 'per"
jietual allegiance. It is difficult to exprefs a fuitable
contempt for this idea, without defcending to lan-
guage below the dignity of philofophy. On the
firft inveftiture of a fief, the fuperior lord (fup-
pofing he had any right to it himfelf) has doubt-
lefs the power of granting it on whatever terms
the vaflal will agree to. It is an even bargain
between the parties; and an unchangeable allegiance
during the lives of thefe parties may be a condi-
tio?

( 44 )

tion of it. But for a man to be born to fuch art
allegiance to another man, is to have an evil
ftar indeed j it is to be born to unchangeable
flavery.

• A nobleman of Tufcany, at this moment, can-
not ftep his foot over the limits of the duchy
without leave from the Grand Duke, on pain of
forfeiting his elVate. Similar laws prevail in all
feudal countries, where revolutions have not yet
prevailed. They flee before the fearching eye of
liberty,, and will foon flee from Europe.

Hitherto we have treated of claims, whether
perfonal or territorial, that are confined to the
cldeft: fons of families j but there is one genuine
feudal claim, which " fpreads undivided" to all
the children^ runs in all collateral direftions, and
cjjtends to every drop pf noble blood, wherever
found, however mixt or adulterated, — it is the
claim oddlenefs. In general it is fuppofed that all
indigent noble children are to be provided for by
the government. But alas ! the fwarm is too great
to. be eafily hived. Though the army^ the navy,

a^4

( 45 )

and the church, with all their porfible nriukiplici-
tion of places, are occupied only by them, yet, as
celibacy deprives them not of the means of propa*-
gation, the number continues fo confiderable, that
many remain out of employment and deftitute of
the means of fupport*

In contemplating the peculiar deftiny of this
defcription of men, we cannot but feel a mixture
of emotions, in which companion gets the better
of contempt. In addition to the misfortunes inci-
dent to other clafTes of fociety, their noble birth
has entailed upon them a fingular curfe ; it has in-
rerdifled them every kind of bufinefs or occupa-
tion, everi for procuring the necefTaries of life.
Other men may be found who have been deprived
of their juft inheritance by the barbarous laws of
defcenr, who may have been neglefted in youth
and not educated to bufinefs, or who by averfion
to induftry are rendered incapable of any ufeful em-
ployment ; but none but the offspring of a noble
family can experience the fuperadded fatality of
being told, that to put his hand to the plough, or

his

( 46 )

his foot into a counting-houle, would difgracc an
illuftrious line of anceftors, and wither a tree of
genealogy, which takes its root in a groom of fome
fortunate robber, who perhaps was an archer of
Charlemagne.

Every capital in Europe, if you except London,
throngs with this miferablc clafs of nobleffe, who
are really and literally tormented between their
pride and their poverty. Indeed, fuch is the pre*
pofterous tyranny of cuftom, that thofe who are
rich, and take the lead in fociety, have the cruelty
to make idknejs a criterion of nobleffe. A proof of
inoccupation is a ticket of admiffion into their
houfes, and an indifpenfible badge of welcome to
iheir parties.

But in France their hands are at laft untied;
the charm is broken, and the feudal fyftem, with
all its infamous idolatries, has fallen to the ground.
Honor is reftored to the heart of man, inftead of
being fufpended from his button-hole ; and ufeful
induftry gives a title to refpeft. The men that

were

( 47 )

were formerly dukes and marquifles are now exalted
to farmers, manufadburers and merchants; the
riling generation among all clafles of people arc
forming their maxims on a jufl: eftimate of things ;
and Society is extrading the poifoned dagger which
conquefl: had planted in her vitals.

CHAP.

( 48 )

CHAP. II.

The Church*

"DUT It would have been impoflible for the
feudal fyftem, with all its powers of inver-
fion, to have held human nature fo long debafcd,
without the aid of an agent more powerful than an
arm of flefh, and without afiailing the mind with
other weapons than thofe which are furnifhed from
its temporal concerns. Mankind are by nature
religious ; the governors of nations, or thofe per-
fons who contrive to live upon the labors of their
fellow-creatures, muft neceflarily be few, in com-
parifon to thofe who bear the burthens of the whcAej
their objeft therefore is to dupe the community at
large, to conceal the ftrength of the many, and
magnify that of the few. An open arrangement of
forces, whether phyfical or moral, muft be artfully

avoided i

( 49 )

avoided ; for men, however ignorant, arc as Na-
turally difpofed to Calculation, as they arc to re-
ligion i they perceive as readily that an hundred
foldiers can deftroy the captain they have made,
as that thunder and lightning can deftroy a man.
Rceourfe muft therefore be had to myfteries and
invifibilities j an engine muft be forged out of the
religion of human nature, and erected on its cre-
dulity, to play upon and extinguilh the light of
reafon, which was placed in the mind as a caution
to the one and a kind companion to the other.

This enginCj in all ages of the world, has been
the Church*. It has varied its appellation, at

different

* From iliaf aflbciatiori of idea's, which u'fually cofinefts the
church with religion, I may run the rifque of being mifunder-
ftood by feme readers, unlefs I advertife them, that I eonfider
no eonneftion as exifting between thefe two fubjeds ; and that
where I fpeak of church indejinitdj , I mean the government of
a ftate, affuming the name of God, to govern by divine autho-
rity ; or, in other words, darkening the cotijciencei of men, in order
to opprefs them.

Irjthe United States of America, there is, ftriAly fpeaking,
hd fttch thing as a Church ; and yet in no country are the peopL"

E more

( p )

different periods and in different countries, ic-
cording to the circumftances of nations j but has
jBCver changed its charadlcr ; and it is difficult to
iay, under which of its names it has done the moft
mifchief, and exterminated the greatcft number of
the human race. Were k not for the danger of
being mifled by the want of information, we fhould
readily determine, that under the aflbmption of
chriftianity it has committed greater ravages thaiv
iSnder any other of its dreadful denominations.

But wc muft not be hafty in deciding this
queftion; as, during the laft fifteen centuries, in
which we are able to trace with companionate in-
dignation the frenzy of our anceftors, and con-
template the wandering demon of carnage, con-

)8K>re rcligioBS, All forts- of religious opinion* are entertained
ibere, and yet no herej^ among them all ; all modes of worlhip
are praftifed, and yet there is no /cht/m ; men frequently change
their creed and their worlhip, and yet theie is no apoftajy ; they
have minifters of religion, but no priejii. In fbort, religion \i
there a ptr/onal and not a corporate conccrnr

1 (iu^ed

( 5' )

dueled by the crof^ of the Weft, the lights of
hiftory fail us with regard to the reft of the world,—
we cannot travel with the crefcent of the Eaft, in its
tinmeafurable devaftations from the Euxine to the
Ganges ; nor tell by what other incantations man-
kind have been inflamed with the luft of flaugh-
ter, from thence to the north of Siberia or to the
fouth of Africa.

Could we form ain eftimate of the lives loft in
the wars and perfecutions of the Chriftian Church
alone, it rnuft be nearly equal to the number of
fouls now exifting in Europe. But it is perhaps
in mercy to mankind, that we are not able to cal-
culate, with any accuracy, even this portion of
human calamities. When Conftantine ordered that
the hierarchy fhould aflume the name of Chrift, we
are not to confider him as forming a new weapon
of deftruftions he only changed a name, which
had grown into difrcpute, and would ferve the pur-
pofe no longer, for one that was gaining an exten-
five reputation ; it being built on a faith that was
>ikely to meet the alTent of a confiderable portion

E 2 . of

( 54 )

of mankind. The cold-hearted * cruelty of that
monarch's charadler, and his embracing the new
doftrincs with a temper hardened in the flaughter

of

* The report of Zofimus refpeding the motives which iiw
duccd Conftantine to embrace Chriftianity, has not been gene-
rally credited, though the circumftance is probable in itfelf,
and the author is confidercd in other refped^s an hiftorian of ui>
doubted veracity ; having written the hiftory of all the emperors,
down to his own time, which was the beginning of the fifth
century^ His account is. That Conilantine could not be ad-
mitted into the old ejiablijhed church of Ceres at Eleufis, on
account of the enormity of his crimes, in the murder of many
of his own family. But on his demanding admiflion, the
Hyerophant cried out with horror, " Be gone, thou parricide,
whom the gods will not pardon," The Chriftian doftors feized
this occafion to adminifter to the wants of the emperor, on con-
dition that he would adminifter to theirs ; the bargain was
advantageous on both fides; he declared hirafclf a Chriftian,
and took the church under his proteftion, and they pronounced
hig pardon.

The fawning fertility of the new church and the blunt
feverity of the old, on that occafion, mark the precife charac-
ter of the ecclefiaftical policy of all ages ; and both examples
have been followed in numerous inftances. The manoeuvres of
t>i€ Pope on the converfion of Clovis, on fanftioning the ufurpa-

tien

( 53 )

of his relations, were omens unfavorable to the fu*
ture complexion of the hierarchy j though he had
thus coupled it with a name that had hitherto been
remarkable for its mildnefs and humiliation. This
tranfaflion has therefore given colour to a fcene of
enormities, which may be regarded as nothing
more than the genuine offspring of the alliance of
Church and State,

This fatal deviation from the principles of the
firft founder of the faith, who declared that his
kingdom was not of this world, has deluged Europe
in blood for a long fucceflion of ages, and carried
occafional ravages into all the other quarters of the
globe. The pretence of extirpating the idolatries
of ancient eftablilbments and the innumerable here-
fics of the new, has been the never-failing argu-

tion of Pepin, and on the coronation of Charlemagne, are
among the imitations 'of the former; the ridiculous chaftife-
ment of Henry the Second of England, and the numerous
anathemas fulminated againft whole kingdoms, are proofs of
the latter. We may likewife remark, that the conduft of
Conftantine has been copied in all its effential points by Henry
\\\t Eighth.

E 3 ' ment

m

( 54 )

ment of princes as well as pontiffs, from the war*
of Conftantinc, down to the pitiful, ftill-born rcr
bcUion of Calonne and the Cqunt d'Artois.

From the time of the conyerfion of Glovis,
through all the Merovingian race, France and
Germany groaned under the fliry of ecclefiaftical
monfters, hunting down the Druids, overturning
the temples of the Roman Polytheifts, and drench-
ing th^ plains with the blood of Arians *. The
wars of Charlemagne againft the Saxons, the Huns^
the Lombards and the Moor?, which defolated
Europe for forty years, had for their principal ob-
jeft the extending and purifying of the Chriftian
faith. The Crufades, which drained Europe of its

• Exterminating heretics was a principal objcft of national
ambition. Childebert I. who died in 558, has the following
•fHtaph on his tomb in the Abbey of St. Germaine da Pre's, at
Paris.

Le Jhng its Arriem dont nugirevt les plaines.,
Dt moTttagnes dt corps hur pays tout coievtrt,
J.t leurs chefs mit a snort, font des prevots certainei
De ee fsi* les Francois firtnt Jmts Childebert,.

young

c « )

young men at eight fucceffive periods, muft have
facrificed, including Afiatics and Africans, at lead
four nnillions of lives. The wars of the Guelfs and
Gibelins, or Pope and Anti-Pope, ravaged Italy,
and involved half Europe in faftions for two cert-
turies together. The expulfion of the MoorS J^ni '^^.
Spain depopulated that kingdom by a war oi^ff
izwtxi hundred years, and eftablilhed the Inquifi-
tion to interdid the refurredlion of fociety j while
millions of the natives of South America have
beeq deftroyed by attempting to convert them.

In this enumeration, we have taken no notice
of that train of calamities which attended the re-
converfion of the eaftern empire, and attaching it
to the faith of Mahomet j nor of the various havoc
which followed the difmemberment of the catholic
church by that fortunate fchifm, which by fome
is denominated the Lutheran herefy> and by others
the Proteftant reformation.

But thefe, it will be faid, are only general traits

of uncivilized charader, which we all contemplate

with equal horror, and which, among enlightened

E 4 nations.

^

( 56 )

nations, there can be no danger of feeing renewed,
Ic is true, that in feveral countries, the glooms of
intolerance feem to be pierced by the rays of phit
lofophy J and we may foon expeft to fee Europe
univerfally difclaiming the right of one man to inr
terfere in the religion of another. We may rCr
mark however, jirji, that this is far from being the
cafe at this moment j ^nd Jeiondlyy that it is a
blefling which never can originate from any ftate-
cftablifliment of religion. For proofs q{ the for-
mer, we need not penetrate into Spain or Italy, nor
recal the hiftory of th^ late fanatical management
of the war in Brabant,- — but look to the two moll
enlightened countries in Europe j fee the riots at
Birmingham, and the condud of the refraflory
priefts in France.

With regard to the fecond remark, — we may as
well own the truth at firft as at laft, and have
fenfe this year as the next : The exijience of any kind
ef liberty is incompatible with the exijience of any kind
of church. By liberty I mean the enjoyment of
equal rights, and by chiiri;h I mean any mode of

worfliip

( 57 )

worfhip declared to be national, or declared to
have any preference in the eye of the law.

To render this truth a little more familiar to
the mind of any reader who ihall find himfelf
ftartled with it, we will take a view of the church
in a different light from what we have yet con- *r*
fidered it. We have noticed hitherto only its
moft ftriklng charafleriftics, in which it appears
like a giant, ftalking over fociety, and wielding
the fword of (laughter ; but it likewife performs
the office of filent difeafe and of unperceived de-
cay J where we may contemplate it as a canker,
corroding the vitals of the moral world^ and de-
bafing all that is noble in man,

""liJ mention fome traits which are rather pecu-
liar to tlib^oman Catholic conftitution, it is be-
caufe that is tlte^edominant church in thofe parts
of Europe, where revolutions are fooneft exped-
cd J and not becaufe it is any worfe or any better
than any other that ever has or ever can exift. I
hinted before, and it may not be amifs to repeat,
^hat the hierarchy is every where the fame, fo far

as

jis thiC circumllanccs of fociety will permit ; for it
borrows and lends, and interchanges its features in
fome meafure with the age and nat on with which
it has to deal, without ever lofing fight of its ob-
jeft. It is every where the fame engine of ftate j
and whether it be guided by a Lama or a Mufti,
by a Pontifex or a Pope, by a Bramin, a Bifliop
or a Druid, it is entitled to an equal fhare of
refpe£l.

The firft great objedt of the prieft is to eftablilh
a belief in the minds of the people, that be hmjelf
is poffeji of Jupernatural fowers ', and the church at
•«11 times has made its way in the world, in pro-
portion as the prieft has fucceeded in this parti-
cular. This is the foundation of every thing,r-a
the life and foul of all that is fubverfiye and unac-
countable in human affairs j it is introducing a
new element into fociety j it is the rudder under
the water, (leering the (hip almoft direftly corvr
trary to the wind that gives it motion.

A belief in the fupernatural powers of the prieft
has been infpiicd by means, which in different

nations

( i-9 )

Rations have been known by different names,--^
fuch as aftrologies, auguries, oracles or incanta-
tions. This article once eftablifhed, its continu-
ation is not a difficult tafk. For as the church
acquires wealth, it furniflies itfelf with the necefr
fary apparatus, and the trade is carried on to ad-
vantage. The innpofition too beconnes more eafy
from the authority of precedent, by which the in-
quifitive faculties of the mind are benumbed ; men
believe by prefcription, and orthodoxy is heredi-
tary.

In this manner every nation of antiqtuty received
the poifon in its infancy, and was rendered inca-
pable of acquiring a vigorous manhood, of fpeak-
ing a national will, or of afting with that dignity
and generofity, which are natural to man in fo-
ciety. The moment that Romulus confulted the
pracles for the building of his city, that moment
he interdidled its future citizens the enjoyment of
liberty among themfelves, as well as all ideas of juf-
tice towards their neighbours. Men never aft their
pwn opinions, in company with thofe who can give
them the opinions of gods j and as long as go-
vernors

( 6o )

vernors have an cftabliflied mode of confulting the
aufpices, there is no neceffity to eftablifh any mode
of confulting the people. Nihil fubliee fine aufpi-
tiis nee domi nee militide gerebatur *, was the Roman
Magna Charta j and it flood in place of a decla-
ration of the rights of man. There is fomething
extremely impofmg in a maxim of this kind. No-
thing is more pious, peaceful, and moderate in ap-r
pearancej and nothing more favage and abomi^
nable in its operation. But it is a genuine church'
fnaxintj and, as fuch, deferves a further confide-
ration,

One obvious tendency of this maxim is, like
the feudal rights, to inculcate radical ideas of in-
equalities among men j and it does this in a much
greater degree. The feudal diftance between man
and man is perceptible and definite j but the mo-
ment you give one member of fociety a familiar
intercourfe with God, you launch him into the
region of infinities and invifibilities j you unfit
him and his brethren to live together on any terms
but thofe of ftupid reverence and of infolent abufe.

• 'Ciffro de dh'inatione. Lib, I.

Another

( 6j )

Another tendency is to make men cruel and
favage in a preternatural degree. When a perfon
believes that he is doing the immediate work of
God, he divefts himfelf of the feelings of a man.
And an ambitious general, who wiflics to extirpate
or to plunder a neiglibouring nation, has only to
order the prieft to do his duty and fet the people at
work by an oracle ; they then know no other bounds
to their frenzy than the will of their leader, pro-
nounced by the pried -, whofe voice to them is the
voice of God. In this cafe the leaft attention to
mercy or juftice would be abhorred as a difobedi-
ence to the divine command. This circumftancc
alone is fufficient to account for two -thirds of the
cruelty of all wars^ — perhaps in a great meafure
for their exiftencej — and has given rife to an opi-
nion, that nations are cruel in proportion as they
are religious. But the obfervation ought to (land
thus, That nations are cruel in proportion as they are
guided hy priefts ; than which there is no axiom
more undeniably without exception.

Another tendency of governing men by oracles,
is to make them fadious and turbulent in the ufe

of

( 6i 1

6f liberty, when they feel themfelves in pofTcffion
of it. In all ancient democracies, the great bod/
of the people enjoyed no liberty at all j and thofe
who were called freemen exercifed it only by ftartsy
for the purpofe of revenging injurics,-i^not in a re-
gular conftituted mode of preventing them ; thtf
body politic ufed liberty as a medicine, and not
as daily bread. Hence it has happened, that the
hiftory of ancient democracies and of modem in-
fnrreftions are quoted upon us, to the infult of
common fenfe, to prove that a whole people is
not capable of governing itfelf. The whole of the
J^afoning on this fubjeft, from the profound dif-
qitifitions of Ariftotle, down to the puny whinings
of Dr. Tatham *, are founded on a direft inver-
fion of hiftorical fa6t. It is the want of liberty^
and not the enjoyment of it, which has oecafioned
all the faftions in fociety from the beginning of

* It may be neeeffary to inform the reader, that Dr. T*.
ftam of Oxford has written a f)Ook in defence of Royalty andf
Mr. Burke. As this is the laft as well as weakeft thing againft
liberty that I have met with, it is mentioned in the text fo^
the fake of widening the grafp of my alTcrtion, as well as fof
lieightening the contraft among all poffible authors,

lirne.

< 63 I
time, and will do fo to the end j it is bccaufc tfie
people are vot habitually free from civil and eccle-i
ilaftical tyrants, that they are difpofed to exercife
tyranny themfelves. Habitual freedom produces
effe6ts dire<5lly the reverie in every particular. For
A proof of thiSi look into America j or if that be
-too much trouble, look into human nature witk
the eyes of common fenfe.

When the Chriftian religion was pcn/erted and
prefied into the fervice of Government, under the
name of the Chrijiian Churchy it became neceflary'
ihat its priefts fhould fet up for fupernatural powers,
and inveft themfelves in tlie fame cloak of infalli-^
bility, of which they had dripped their predecef-
fors, the Druids and the Augurs. This they cf-
fe<^ed by miracles ; for which they gained fo great-
a reputation, that they were canonized after deadly
and have furnifhed modern Europe with a much
greater catalogue of faints, than could be found
in any breviary of the ancients. The polytheifm
of the Catholic Church is more fplendid for the
number of its divinities^ than that of the Eleufi-
tvianj and they are not inferior in point of attri*

bates.

( 64 )

biitcs. The Denis of France is at leaft equal M
the Jupiter of Greece or the Apis of Egypt. As
to fupernatural powers, the cafe is precifely the
fame in both ; and the portions of infallibility are
dealt out from the pope to the fubordinate priefts,
according to their rank, in fuch a manner as to
complete the harmony of the fyftem.

Cicero has written with as much judgment and
erudition on the " corruptions'* of the old Roman
Church, as Dr. Prieftley has on thofe of the new.
But it is not the church which is corrupted by men,
it is men who are corrupted by the church i for
the very exiftence of a church, as I have before
defined it, is founded on a lie j it fets out with the
blafphemy of giving to one clafs of men the at*
tributes of God j and the praftifing of thefe for*
ceries by that clafs, and believing them by another,
corrupts and vitiates the whole.

One of the moft admirable contrivances of the
Chriftian church is the bufinefs of confejfions. It
requires great refledion to give us an idea of the
cffefts wrought on fociety by this part of the

machinery.

( «5 )_

hiachinery. It is a folemn recognition of the fu-
pernatural powers of the prieft, repeated every day
in the year by every human creature above the
age of twelve years. Nothing is more natural
than for men to judge of every thing around them>
and even of themfelves, by eomparifon-, and in
this cafe what opinion are the laity to form of their
own dignity ? When a poor, ignorant, vicious mor-
tal is fet up for the Go^iy what is to be the man ?
I cannot conceive of any perfon going ferioufly to
a confeflional, and believing in the equality of
rights, or pofTefTing one moral fcntiment that is
worthy of a rational being *.

* The following tariff of the prices of abfolution will {how
what ideas thefe holy fathers have inculcated relative to the
proportional degree of moral turpitude in different crimes. It
was reprinted at Rome no longer ago than the lall century.

For a layman whofhall ftrike a prieft without effu-1
fion of blood — — j

For one layman who (hall kill another — o 3 3

For murdering a father, mother, wife or fifler 050

For eating meat in Lent — ■ — ^ <^ 5 ?

For him who lies with his mother or fifter 038

For marrying on thofe days when the Chnreh for-
bids matrimony — —
For the abfolution of all crimes — 2160
F Another

( 66 )

Another contrivance of the fame fort, and little
inferior in efficacy, is the law of celibacy impofcd
on the prieflhood, both male and female, in almoft
all church-eftablifhments that have hitherto ex-
ifted. The prieft is in the firft place armed with
the weapons of moral deftrufliony by which he is
made the profeflional enemy of his fellow men ;
and then, for fear he fhould neglefb to ufe thofe
weapons, — for fear he fhould contracSt the feelings
and friendfliips of rational beings, by mingling
with fociety and becoming one of its members,
-—for fear his impofitions Ihould be difcovered by
the intimacy of family connexions, — -he is inter-
didled the moft cordial endearments of life ; he is
fevered from the fympathies of his fellow-creatures,
and yet compelled to- be with them j his affections
are held in the" mortmain of perpetual inaflivity ;
and, like the dead men of Mezentius, he is lafhed'
to fociety for tyranny and contaminatiom

The whole; of this management, in felecSling,-
preparing and organizing the members of the ec-
elefiaftical body, is purfued with the fame uniform,
cold-blooded hoftility againft the fecial harmonics

of

t 67 )

bf life, 'the fubiefls are taken from the younger
fons of noble families, who 'from their birth arc
confidered as a nuifance to the houfe, and an out-
caft from parental attachment; They are then
cut off from all opportunities of forming fraternal
affedions, and educated in a cloifler; till they
enter upon their public funfltions, as difconnefled
from the feelings of the community, as it is de-
figned they fliall ever remain from its interefts.

I will not mention the corruption of morals^
which muft refult from the combined caufes of the
ardent paflions of conllrained celibacy, and the
fecret interviews of the prieft with the women of
his charge, for the purpofe of confefTions ; I will
draw no arguments from the diflenfions fown in
families ; the jealoufies and confequent aberrations
of both hufband and wifcy occafioned by an in-
triguing ftranger being in the fecrets of both j thd
difcouragcments laid upon matrimony by a general
dread of thefe confequences in the minds of men
of rcfledion, — ^effefls which are remarkable in all
catholic countries; but I will conclude this article
by obferving the dired influence that ecclefiaftical
F 2 celibacy

( 63 )

celibacy alone has had on the population of Eu-
rope.

This policy of the church muft have produced
at leafl: as great an efFefl, in thinning fociety, as
the whole of her wars and perfccutions. In Ca-
tholic Europe there mull be near a million of cc-
clefiaftics. This proportion of mankind continu-
ing deduced from the agents of population for
fifteen centuries, muft have precluded the exiftehce
of more than one hundred millions of the human
Ipecies.

Should the reader be difpofed on this remark to
liften to the reply which is fometimes made, that
Europe is fufficiently populous ; I beg he would
fufpend his decifion, till he fhall fee what may be
laid, in the courfe of this work, on protedled in-
duftry ; and until he fhall well confider the effeds
of liberty on the means of fubfiftence. That reply
is certainly one of the axioms of tyranny, and is
of kin to the famous wilh of Caligula, chat the
whole Roman people had but one neck.

The

( 69 )

The French have gone as far in the deftruc-
tion of the hierarchy as could have been expect-
ed, confidcring the habits of the people and the"
prefent circumftances of Europe. The church in
that country was like royalty, — the prejudices in
its favor were too ftrong to be vanquifhed all at
once. The moft that could be done, was to tear
the bandage from the eyes of mankind, break the
charm of inequality, demolilh ranks and infalli-
bilities, and teach the people that mitres and crowns
did not confer fupernatural powers. As long as
public teachers aire chofen by the people, are fala-
ried and removeable by the people, are born and
married among the people, have families to be
educated and prote6led from oppreflion and from
vice,— as long as they have all the common fym-
pathies of fociety to bind them to the public in-
tereft, there is very little danger of their becom-
ing tyrants by force j and the liberty of the prefs
will prevent their being fo by crafr.

In the United States of America there is no
church; and this is one of the principal circum-
ftances which diftinguiih that government from
F 3 aU

( 70 )

all others that ever exifted ; it enfures the un-cm-
barrafled exercife of religion, the continuation of
public inftruflion in the fcience of liberty and hap-
pinefs, and promifes a long duration to a reprc-
fentativc government^

CHAP.

( 7s )

CHAP, III.

THE MILITARY SYSTEM.

// imfortoit au maintien d^ Vautorite du roi, d'entre-
tenir la guerre, Hiftoire de Charlemagne.

np* H E church. In all modern Europe, may be
confidered as a kind of (landing army ; as
the members of that community have been in
every nation, the fureft fupporters of arbitrary
power, both for internal oppreffion and for exter-
nal violence. But this not being fufRcient of itfelf^
an additional inftrument, to be known by the name
of the military Jyftem^ became necefiary j and it
feems to have been expedient to call up another
element of human nature, out of which this new
inftrument might be created and maintained. The
F 4 church

( 73 )

church was in pofleflion of the (Irongcft ground
that could be taken in the human mind, the prin^
ciple of religion; a principle dealing with things in-
vifible ; and confequcntly the mod capable of being
itfelf perverted, and then of perverting the whole
mind, and fubjecling it to any unreafonable pur-
fuit.

Next to that of religion, and fimilar to it in
mod of its charaderiftics, is the principle o^ honor.
Honor, like religion, is an original, indelible fen-
timent of the mind, an indifpenfable ingredient
in our nature. But its obje6k is incapable of pre-
cife definition; and confequcntly, though giyen
us in aid of the more definable feelings of mora-
lity, it is capable of total perverfion, of lofing
fight of its own original nature, and flill retaining
Its name ; of purfuing the defVruflion of moral
fentiments, inftead of being their ornament; of
debafing, inftead of fupporting, the dignity of
man,

This camelion principle was therefore a pro-
per element of impofition, and was deftined' to

make.

( 73 )

make an Immenfe figure in the world, as the foun-
dation and fupport of the military fyftem of all
unequal governments. We muft look pretty far^, y
into human nature, before we (hall difcover the ..
caufe, why killing men in battle fhould be deem- '%.. .^
ed, in itfelfj an honorable employment. A hang- '^.'#?
man is univerfally defpifed j he exercifes an office
which not only the feelings but the policy^ of all
nations have agreed to regard as infamous. What
is it that (hould make the difference of thefe two
occupations in favor of the former ? Surely it is
pot becaufe the viftims in the former cafe are in-
ttocentj and in the latter guilty. To aflert this,
would be a greater libel upon human fociety than
I can bring qiyfelf to utter j it would make the
tyranny of opinion the mod detejiabky as well as
the mod fovereign of all poffible tyrannies. But
what can it be ? It is nor, what is fometimes al-
ledged, that courage is the foundation of the bufi-.
nefs ; that fighting is honorable becaufe it is dan-
gerous J there Is often as much courage difplayed
in highway-robbery, as in the warmeft confiift of
armies ; and yet it does no honor to the party j a
llobin Hood is. as diOionorable a charafter as a

Jack

( 74 )

Jack Ketch. It is not bccaufe there is any idc^
o( jujiice or hontfiy in the cafej for to fay the beft
that can be faid of war, it is impoflible that more
than ope fide can be juft or honeft ; and yet both
fides of every conteft are equally the road to fame;
where a diftinguiflied killer of men is fure to gain
immortal honor. It is not patriot j/m, even in that
fenfe of the word which deviates the moft from
general philanthropy j for a total flranger to both
parties in a war, may enter into it on either fide as
a volunteer, perform more than a vulgar Ihare of
the flaughter, and be for ever applauded, even by
liis enemies. Finally, it is not from any pecuniary
advantages that are ordinarily attached to the pro-
feffion of arms ; for foldiers are generally poor^
though part of their bufinefs be to plunder.

Indeed, I can fee but one reafon in nature, why
the principle of honor fhould be fele^ted from all
human incentives, and relied on for the fupport
of the military fyftem : it is becaufe it was c&nve-
nietit for the governing power j that power being in
the hands of a fmall part of the community whofe
bufinefs was to fupport it by impofition, No

prin-

( 75 )

principle of a permanent nature, whofe objcd is
unequivocal, and whofe flighteft deviations are per-
ceptible, would have anfwered the purpofe. Juf-
tice, for inftance, is a principle of common ufc,
of which every man can difcern the application.
Should the prince fay it was juji, to commence an
unprovoked war with his weak neighbours and
plunder their country, the falftiood would be too
glaring j all men would judge for themfelves, an4
give him the lie ; and no man would follow hi^
ftandard, unlefs bribed by his avarice. But honor
is of another nature j it is what we all can feel,
but no one can define j it is therefore whatever the
prince may choofe to name it j and fo powerful is
its operation, that all the ufefal fentiments- of life
lofe their efFedti morality is not only banifhed
from political cabinets, but generally and profef-
fionally from the bofoms of men who purfue honor
in the profeffion of arms.

It is common for a king, who wiflies to make
a thing fafhionable, to pradtife it himfelf j and in
this he is fure of general imitation and fuccefs.
As this device is extremely natural, and as the ex-

iftence

( 76 )

iftencc of wars is abfolutely neceflary to the ex-
iftence of kings ; to give a fafhion to the trade
muft have been a conGderablc motive to the an-
cient kings, for expofing themfelves fo nnuch as
they ufually did in battle. They faid, Let human
Jlaitghter be hcnorable, and honorable it was.

Hence it is, that warriors have been terrned he-
roes J and the eulogy of heroes has been the con-
ftant bufinefs of hidorians and po^ts, from the
clays of Nimrod down to the prefent century.
Homer, for his adonifhing variety, animation, and
fublimity, has not a warmer admirer than myfelf j
he has been for three thoufand years, like a reign-
ing fovereign, applauded as a matter of courfe^
whether from love or fear j for no man with fafety
to his -own charadler can refufe to join the chorus
of his praife. I never can exprefs (and his other
admirers have not done it for me) the pleafure I
receive from his poems j but in a view of philan-
thropy, I confider his exiftence as having been a
ferious misfortune to the human race. He has"
given to military life a charm which few men can
refill, a fplendor which envelopes the fcenes of car-
nage

in')

nage in a, clbnd of glory, which dazzles the tyt^
of every beholder, fteals from us our natural rert-
fibilities in exchange for the artificial, debafes men
to brutes under the pretext of exalting them to
gods, and obliterates with the fame irrefiftible
ftroke the moral duties of life and the true policy
of nations. Alexander * is not the only human
monfter that has been formed after the model, of
Achilles ; nor Perfia and F.gypt the only countries
depopulated for no other reafon than the defire of
rivalling predeceflbrs in military fame.

Another device of princes, to render honorable
the profeffion of arms, was to make it enviable, by
depriving the loweft orders of fociety of the power

* It Is not unworthy of remark, that Arlilotle was the tutor
of Alexander, and the moft fplcndid editor and coramentatot
of Homer. As we mult judge an author by his works, it is
but fair to take into view the ivholc of his works. Confidcred
therefore as a political fchool-mafter to the world, the forming
of his pupil and the illuflrating of his poet are the greateft
fruits of the induftry of that philofopher, and have had much
more influence on the affairs of nations, than his treatife thaJ
tears the oainc of politks,

of

( 78 )

of becoming foldiers. Excluding the helots of
all nations from any part in the glory of butcher-
ing their fellow-creatures, has had the fame effeft
as in Sparta,— ^it has ennobled the trade j and this
is the true feudal eliimation, in which this trade
has defcended to Us from our Gothic anceflors.

At the fame time that the feudal fyftem was
furnifhing Europe with a numerous body of no-
blefle, it became neceflary, for various purpofes
of defpotifm, that they fhould be prevented from
mingling with the common mafs of fociety, that
they (hould be held together by what they call
Vejprit de corps, or the corporation fpirit, and ht
furnifhed with occupations which fhould leave them
nothing in common with their fellow men. Thefe
occupations were offered by the church and the armyj
and as the former was permanent, it was thought
expedient to give permanency to the latter. Thus
the military fyftem has created the noblefle, and
the nobleffe the military fyftem. They are mu-
tually neceflary to each other's exiftence, — concur-
rent and reciprocal caufcs and effefls, generating
and generated, perpetuating each other by inter-
I changeable

( 79 )

thangeable wants, and both indifpenfable to thi!:
governing power.

Thofe perfons therefore who undertake to de-
fend the noblelTe as a neceffary order in the grc2:t
community of men, ought to be apprifed of the
extent of their undertaking. They muft, in the
firft place, defend Jianding armies^ and that too
upon principles, not of national prudence,' as re-
lative to the circumftances of neighbours, but of
internal neceffity, as relative only to the organi-
2ation of fociety. They mufl: at the fame time
extend their arguments to the increafe of thofe ar-
mies J for they infallibly muft increafe to a degi^e
beyond our ordinary calculation, or they will not
anfwer the purpofe ; both becaufe the number of
the noblefie, or " the men of the fword" (as they
are properly ftyled by their friend Biirk^) is con-
ftantly augmenting, and becaufe the influence of
the church is on the decline. As the light of phi-
lofophy illuminates the world, it Ihines in upon'
the fecrets of government ; and it is neceflary to
make the blind as broad as the window, or the
^aflengers will fee what is doing in the cabinet.

The

( So )

*rhe means of impofition muft be increafed in the
army, in proportion as they are lofl in the church.

Secondly, they muft vindicate waVy not merely
fts an occurrence of fatality, and juftifiable on the
defenfive j but as a thing of choice, as being the
moft nutritious aliment of that kind of govern-
ment which requires privileged orders and an army i
for it is no great figure of fpeech, to fay that the
nobility of Europe are always fed upon human
gore. They originated in war, they live by war,
and without war it would be impoffible to keep
them from ftarving. Or, to drop the figure en-
tirely, if mankind were left to the peaceable pur-'
fuit of induftry, the titled orders would lofe their
diftin6tions, mingle with fociety, and become rea-
fonable creatures.

Thirdly, they muft defend the honor of the oc-
cupation which is allotted to the nobleflc. For the
age is becoming extremely fceptical on this fub-'
jeft } there are heretics in the world (Mr, Burke
calls them atheifts) who afFc<5t to diftDclieve that
men were made exprefly for the purpofe of cutting

each

( 8i )

tach other's throats ; and who fay that It Is not. jhe
higheft honor that a man can arrive at, to fell hinn-
felf to another man for life at a certain daily
price, and to hold himfelf in readinefs, night and
day, to kill individuals or nations, at home or
abroad, without ever enquiring the caufe. Thefe
men fay, that it is no compliment to the judg-
ment or humanity of a man, to lead fuch a life ;
and they do not fee why a nobleman fhould not
pofTefs thefe qualities as well as other people*

Fourthly, they muft prove that all occupations
which tend to /j/>, and not to ^eatb, are difhonor-
able and infamous. Agriculture, commerce, every
method of augmenting the means of fubfiftence,
and raifing men from the favage ftate, muft be
held ignoble; or eife men of honor will forget
themfelves fo far as to engage in them ; and then,
farewell to diftindions. The national afTembly
(pay then create orders as faft as it has ever un-
created them i it is impofTible for-Nobility to exift,
in France, or in any other country, unlefs the above
articles are firmly defended by arguments, and fix-
ed in the mirds Qf mankind.

G It

( »2 J

if ftcms difliciilt for a man of reflection to write
enc page on the fubjcA of government, without
meeting with fomc old eftablifhed maxims, which
are not only falfe, but which arc precifely the rc-
vcrfe of truth. Of this fort is the opinion. That
inevitable wars in modern times have given occa-
l^on to the prefent military fyflem, and that (land-
ing armies are the bcfl means of preventing wars;-
This is what the people of Europe are commanded
to believe. With all due deference, however, to-
their commanders, I would propofc a contrary be-
lief, which I will venture to lay down as the true
itate of the faft : That the prefent mHitdry Jyfiem hat
'been the cauje of the wars ef modem times y and that
fianding armilfs are the befiy if not the only means of
PROMOTING Ivors. This pofirioii has at leaft onr
advantage over thofe that are commonly cHablifhcd
by governments, that it "k believed by him who
propofes ic to the allent of others. Men Who can-
not command the power of the ftatc, ought ttf
enforce their dodrines by the power of Reafon,
and to rUk on the fe» of opinion nothing mows
than what (he will take under her convoy.

Td

( 8j )

To apply this maxim to the cafe now before us j
let us afk, PFhat is war ? and on what propcnfity
in human nature does it reft ? For it is to mah
that w€ are to trace thefe queftionsj and not to
printed j we mUft drive them up td principle^ and
hot ftop fhort at precedent 3 and endfeavour to ufe
our ktiki inftead of parading bur learning. Among
individual menj or favages afting in a defultory
manner, antecedent to the forrtiatioh of great fo-
cieties, there may Be many caufes of quarrels and
aflaflinations i fiith as love, jealoufy^ rapine, or the
tevenge of private ihjuriesi But thefe do not
amount to the idea of wan War fuppofes a vaft
aflbciation of men engaged in one caufe, aftuated
by one fpirit, and carrying on a bloody conteft
Ivith another affociation in a fimilar predicament*
Few of the motives which aftuate private men cart
apply at once tO flich a multitude, the greatefl:
part of which muft be perfonal ftrangers to each
Other. Indeed, where the motives are clearly ex-
plained and well underftood by the community at
large, fo as to be really felt by the people, there is
but one of the ordinary caufes above mentioned
which can adtuatc fuch a body ; it is rapinCi of th^
Q 2 hope

( H )

hope of enriching themfelves by plunder. There
can be then but two circumftances under which a
nation will commence an offenfive war : either the
people at large mud be thoroughly convinced that
they (hall be perfonally rewarded not only with,
conqueft, but with a vaft Ihare of wealth from the
conquered nation, or eHe they muft be duped into
the war by thofe who hold the reins of govern-
ment. All motives for national offences are re-
duced to thefe two, and there can be no more.
The fubjed, like moft others, becomes extremely
fimple, the moment it h confidered. ^

And how many of the wars of mrankind origi-
nate in the firft of thefe motives ? Among civilized
nations, none. A people confiderably numerous>
approaching towards ideas of fober policy, and be-
ginning to tafte the fruits of induflry, require but
little experience to convince themfelves of the fol-
lowing truths, — that no benefit can be derived to
the great body of individuals from conqueft, thougli
it were certain — that this event is always doubtful,
and the decifion to be dreaded, — that nine tenths
of the loiTes m all wars arc a dear lofs to both

partic*:^^

( h )

jurtKs, being funk in expences, — that the remainr
ing tenth neceflarily comes into the hands of the
principal managers, and produces a real misfor-
tune even to the vi<5borious party, by giving them
matters at home, inftead of riches from abroad.

The pitiful idea of feafting ourfelves on a com-
parifon of fuffering, and balancing our own loflcs
by thofc of the enemy, is a flratagem of govern-
ment, a calculation of cabinet arithmetic. Indi-
viduals reafon not in this manner. A diftreffed
mother in England, reduced from a full to a fcanty
diet, and bewailing the lofs of her fon, receives nq
confolation from being told of a woman in France,
whofe fon fell in the fame battle, and that the taxes
are equally increafed in both countries by the fame
war. But kings, and minifters, and generals, and
hiftorians proclaim, as a glorious conteft, every
war which appears to have been as fatal to the
enemy as to their own party, though one half of
each nation are flaughtered in the field, and the
other half reduced to flavery. This is one of the
bare-faced impofitions with which mankind are per-
petually infulted, and which call upon us, in the
G 3 Mvnt

( ft )

ntme of humanity, to pqrfuc this enquiry into the
caufe^ of w^r.

The hiftory of^ ancient Rome, from beginning[
to end, under all its kings, confujs and emperors,
furniftiejf not a fingle jnftance, after the conqueft
of the Sabines, of what may properly be called a
popular offenfive war j } mean a war that wdu14
have been undertaken by the people, had they en-
joyed a free government, fo organized as to have
enabled them to deliberate before they afted, and
to fufFer nothing to be carried into c:!{ecutiop b«t
the national will.

The fame may be ftid of modern Europe, after
a correfponding period in the progrefs of nations j
which period fhould be placed at ihe very com-
mencement of civilization. Perhaps after the fet-
tlemcnt of the Saracens in Spain, the Lombard^
if! Italy, the Franks in Gaul, and the Saxons in
England, we fhould have heard no more of offen-
five operations, had they depended on the unin-
fluenced wifhes of the people. For we are not to

regard

( 87 )

licgard as offeTt/vOf the ftrugglcs of a nation for the
recovery of liberty.

What Jin inconceivable mafs of flaughter are we
then to place to the other account ; to dark, un-
equal government ! to the magical powers poi-
fcfled by a few men of blinding the eyes of the
community, and leading the people to deftruftion
by thofp who arc called their fathers and their
friends ! Thefe operations could not be carried on,
for a long time together, in ages tolerably enlight-
ened, without a permanent refource. As long as
the military conditions of feudal tenures remained
in full vigor, they were fure to furnifli the means
of deftrudion to follow the will of the Ibvcreign j
but as the afperities of this fyftem foftened away by
degrees, it feems that governrhents were threatened
with the ncceflity of applying to the people at large
for voluntary enliftments, and contributions in mo*,
neyj oa which application the purpofe muft be
declared. This would be too direft an appeal to
the confciences of men on a queftion of oiTenfivc
war, and was, if pofllble, to be avoided. For even
the power of the church, where there was no
G 4 queftion

( 88 )

queftion of hcrefy, could not be always relied on,
to ftimulate the people to a quarrel with their neigh*
hours of the fame faith i and ftill lefs was it fare
of inducing thenn to part with their money. The
expedient therefore of (landing armies became ne-
ceffary j and perhaps rather on account of the
money than the men. Thus money is required
to levy armies, and armies to levy money j and
foreign wars are introduced as the pretended occa-
fion for both.

One general characfler will apply to much the
greater part of the wars of modern times, «
they are pditicaly and not vindi^ive. This alone
is fufficient to account for their real origin. They
ase wars of agreement *, rather than of diflention j

• Whenever the real fecret hiftory of the Englifli ?ncl Spa-
■ifti armaments of 1790 (hall be publifhed to the world, though
it may not furnidi new arguments to men of refletlion for dif-
^rufting political cabinets, it may at leaft increafe the number
^i fuch men. But this cannot be done with fafety during the
Jives of fome pf the principal ^ftors in th^t aftonifhing piece of
.aedacity. I am convinced th?t ^he perfon who at this moraei;t
fiiould do it, would not furvive the publication fo long as pope
Ganganelli did the fuppreffion of the JcAiits.

an4

.( 89 )

ancf the conqneft is taxes, and not territory. To
€arry on this bufinefs, it is necefifary not only to
keep up the military fpirit of the nobleffe by titles
and penfions, and to keep in pay a vaft number of
troops, who know no other God but their king ;
who lofe all ideas of themfelves, in contemplating
their officers ; and who forget the duties of a man,
to praftife thofe of a foldier,-r^this is but half the
operation : an effential part of the military fyftem
is to difarm the people, to hold all the fundtions
of war, as well the arm that executes, as the will
that declares it, equally above their reach. This
part of the fyftem has a double cfFeft, it palfies the
hand and brutalizes the mind : an habitual difufe
of phyfical forces totally deftroys the moral ; and
men lofe at once the power of protefting them-
felves, ^nd of diCcerning the caufe of their op-
preflion,

It is almoft ufelcfs to mention the conclufions
which every rational mind muft draw from thefe
confiderations. But though they are too obvious
to be miftaken, they are ftill too important to be
pafled over in filencc j for we feem ;o be arrived

at

( 90 )

9C th»t epoch in human affairs, when *' all ufbful
ideas, and truths the mofl: neceffary to the happi-,
nefs of mapkind, arc no longer cxclufivcly dcftine4
to adorn the pages of a book */' Nations, wea-
ried out with impoilure, begin to provide for the
fafpty of man, inftead pf purfuing h\s deftru<Elion,

I will mention as one conclufion, which bid*
fair to be a pradical one, that riie way to prevent
wars is not merely to change the military fyftcm j
for that, like the church, is a, neccffary part of
the governmen^^ as they now ft?ind, and of focicty
as now organized : but the frinciple of government
rnuft be completely changed ; and the confequence
of this will be fuch a total renovation of foctety,
as to banilh (landing armies, overturn the military
fyftem, and exclude the poffibility of war,

Only admit the original, unalterable truth, that
gll men are equal in their rights^ and the foundation
of every thing is laid j to build the luperftrudture
requires no effort but that of natural dedudlion,

* L'AjfembU'e natmale.

The

( 9' )

The firft neceflhrr deduftion will be, that the peor
pie will form an equal reprefcntative gpvernrpent j
in which it nvjH be jmpoflTible for orders or frivir
kges to exifl: for a moment j ^nd coniL-quently the
firft materials fpr ftandipg aripjes will \it converted
jnto peaceable members pf the ftate. Another
dcdudlion follo5\'s, That the people will bp univer-
fally armed : they will aflume thofe weapons for
fecurity, which the art of war has inyented for dcr
ftruftioi). You wjll then have removed the mcef"
Jity of ^ Handing arnny by tl^e organization of the
legiflature, and the pojjibility of it by the arrange-
ment of the militia ^ for it is as impofllble for an
armed Ibldiery to exift in an arrned nation, as for
a nobility tq exift ^nder an equal government.

It is curious to remark how ill we reafon on
human nature, from being accuftomed to view it
under the difguife which the unequal governments
pf the world have always impofed upon it. During
the American war, and efpecially towards its clofc,
General Walhington might be faid to poflefs the
hearts of all the Americans. His recommendation
was law, and he was able to cornmand the whojc

power

( 9^ )

power of that people for any purpofe of defence.
The philofophers of Europe confidered this as a
dangerous crifis to the caufe cf freedonn. They
kne-w, from the example of Csefar and Sylla and
Marius and Alcibiades and Pericles and Crom-
well, that Wafhington would never lay down his
arms, till he had given his country a mailer. But
^ter he did Jay them down, then came the mi^
rack,?— Jiis virtue was cried up to be more thap
human i and it is by this miracle of virtue in him>
that the Americans are fuppofed to enjoy their %
berty at this day,

I believe the virtue of that great man to be
equal to the higheft human virtue that has ever
yet been known s but to an American eye no ex-»
traordinary portion of it could appear in that tranf-
aftion. It would h^ve been impofTible for the ge-
neral or the army to have continued in the field
after the enemy left it ; for the fo diers were all
citizens -, and if it had been Qtherwife, their num-
bers were not the hundredth part of the citizens at
largej who were all Joldiers. To fay that he was
wife in difcerning the impoflibility of fuccefs in an

attempt-

( 93 )

Jittempt to imitate the great heroes abore-mentw
oned, is to give him only the fame merit for fa-
gacity which is common to every other perfon
who knows that country, or who has weJl confi-
dered the^effcds of equal liberty.

Though infinite praife is due to the conftituting,
aflfcmbly of France for the temperate refolution
and manly firmnefs which mark their operations
in general; yet it mud be confefTed that fome of
tlieir reforms bear the marks of too timorous a
hand- Preferving an hereditary king with a tre-
mendous accumulation of powers, and providing
an unneceflary number of priefls, to be paid from
the national purfe, and furnifhed with the means of
rebuilding the half-deltroyed ruins of the hierarchy,
arc circumftances to be pardoned for reafons which.
I have already hinted. But the enormous military
force, which they have decreed fhall remain as a
permanent eflablifhment, appears to me not only
unneceflary, and even dangerous to liberty, but
totally and dirc6lly fubverfive of the end they had
in -view. Their objects were the fecurity of the
frontiers and the tranquillity of the ftate ^ the re-
verie

( $4 )

vcrfc of this will be the efFeft,— not perhaps tliaf
this army will be turned againft the people^ or in-
Tolve the ftatc in offenGve wars. On the con^
trary> ftippofe that it fittiply and faithfully defends
the frontiers and protefts the people ; this defence
and this protection are the evils of which I com-
phitii They tend to weaken the nation, by dead-
ening the fpirit of the peopJle, and teaching theitt
to look up to others for pfoteftion, Inflead of de-
pending on their own invincible artti. A people
that legidate for thcmfelves ought to be in the
habit of protefting themfelves j or they tvill lofc
the fpirit of both. A knowledge of their own
firengtb preferves a temperance in their own ivif-
domy and the performance of their duties gives t
iralue to their rights^

This is llkewife the way to increafe the folid do-
ttieftic forde of a nation, to a degree far beyond any
ideas we form of a ftanding armyj and at the
lame time to annihilate its capacity as well as in-
tlination for foreign aggreffive hoftilities. The
true guarantee of perpetual tranquillity a^ home
And abroad, in fuch a cafe, wouW arife from this

truthy

( $5 )

truth, which would pafs into an incontrovertible
maxim, that oflTenfire operations would be impof-
iible, and defenfive ones infallible.

This is Undoubtedly the true aSrid dnly feeret of
exterminating wars from the face of the earth j
and it muft afford no fmall degree of conlblatiort
fo every friend of humanity, to find this unfpeak--
able bleffing refulting from that equal mode of go-*
▼ernment, which alone fecures every other enjoy-";
ment for which mankind' unite their interefts in
fociety. Politicians, and even fometimes boneft
men, are accuftomed to fpeak of war as an un-
controlable event, falling on the human race likeJ
a concuflion of the elements,— a fcourge which
admits no remedy > but for which we muft waic
with trembling preparation, as for an epidemical
diieafe, whofe force we may hope to lighten, buC
can never avoid. Th«y fay that mankind are wick-
ed and rapacious, and " it muft be that ofFences
will come." This reafoning applies to individuals,
and to countries when governed by individuaU -,
but not to nations deliberately fpeaking a national
Voice. I hope I Ihall not be underftood to mean^
I that

< 9< )

that the nature of man is totally changed by liv-
ing in a free republic. I allow that it is ftill inters
ejied men and pajfwnate men, that direft the af»
fairs of the world. But in national afiemblies,
pafllon is loft in deliberation, and intereft balances
intercft; till the good of the whole community
combines the general will. Here then is a great
moral entity, afting ftill from interefted motives ;
but whofe intereft it never can be, in any poflible
combination of circumftances, to commence an
offenfive war.

There is another confideration, from which we
may argue the total extindion of wars, as a necef-
fary confequence of eftabliftiing governments on
the reprefentative wifdom of the people. We are
all fenfible that fuperftition is a blemifti of human
nature* by no means confined to fubjedls con-
nedted with religion. Political fuperftition is almoft
as ftrong as religious ; and it is quite as univer-
fally ufed as an inftrument of tyranny. To enu-
merate the variety of ways in which this inftru-
ment operates on the mind, would be more dif-
iiculc, thao to form a general idea of the refult of

iu

( 97 )

its operations. In monarchies, it induces men to
fpill their blood for a particular family, or for a
particular branch of that family, who happens to
have been born firft, or lafl:, or to have been
taught to repeat a certain creed, in preference to
other creeds. But the effcd which I am going
chiefly to notice, is that which refpefts the territo-
rial boundaries of a government. For a man in
Portugal or Spain to prefer belonging to one of
thofe nations rather than the other, is as much a
fuperftition, as to prefer the houfe of Braganza to
that of Bourbon, or Mary the fecond of England,
to her brother. All thefe fubjefls of preference
ftand upon the fame footing as the turban and the
hat, the crofs and the crefcent, or the iilly and
the rofe.

The boundaries of nations have been fixed for
the accommodation of the governmentt without the
lead regard to the convenience of the people.
Kings and minifters, who make a profitable trade
of governing, are interefted in extending the limits
of their dominion as far as poffible. They have a
property in the people, and in the territory that

H they

( 9» )

they cover. The country and its inhabitants arc
to them a farm flocked with Iheep. When they
call up thefc fheep to be fliearcd, they teach them
to know their names, to follow their matter, and
avoid a ftranger. By this unaccountable impofi-
tion it is, that men arc led from ohe extravagant
folly to another, — to adore their king, to boaft of
their nation, and to wifh for conqueft, — circum-
ftances equally ridiculous in themfelves, and equal-
ly incompatible with that; rational eftimation of
things, which arifes from the fcience of liberty.

In America it is not fo. Among the feveral
ftates, the governments are all equal in their force,
aqd the people are all equal in their riglits. Were
it pofliblt for onp ftate to conquer another (late,
without any expence of money, or of time, or of
blood, — neither of the dates, nor a fingle individual
in either of them, would be richer or poorer for
the event. The people would all be upon
their own lands, and engaged in their own occu-
pations, as before i and whether the territory on
which they live were called New York or Mafla-
chufetts, is a matter, of total indifferefice, about
1 which

\

( 99 ) .

which they have no fupcrflition. For the people
belong not to the government, but the govern-
ment belongs to the people.

Since the independence of thofe dates, many
territorial difputes have been fettled, which had
rifen from the interference of their ancient char-
ters. The interference of charters is a kind of po-
licy which, I fuppole, every mother country ob-
ferves towards her colonies, . in order to give them
a fubjcd of contention j that fhe may have the
opportunity of keeping all parties quiet by the
parental blefling of a fianding army. But on the
banifliment of foreign controul, and all ideas of
European policy, the enjoyment of equal liberty
has taught the Americans the fecret of fettling thefc
difputes, with as much calmnefs as they have form-
ed their conftitutions. It is found, tliat quefticns
about the boundaries between free ftates are not
matters of intereft, but merely of form and con-
venience. And though thefe queftions may in-
volve a traft of country equal to an European
kingdom, it alters not the cafe -, they are fettled as
merchants fettle the courfe of exchange between
H 2 tw©

( 100 )

two commercial cities. Several inftances have
occurred, fince the revolution, of deciding in a few
days, by amicable arbitration, territorial difputes,
which determine thejurifdiction of larger and richer
trafbs of country, than have formed the objefts of
all the wars of the two lafl: centuries between France
and Germany.

It is needlefs to fpend any tinrie in applying
this idea to the circumftances of all countries,
where the government fhould be freely and habi-
tually in the hands of the people. It would apply
to all Europe ; and will apply to it, as foon as a
revolution fhall take place in the principle of go-
vernment. For fuch a revolution cannot (top (hort
of fixing the power of the ftate on the bafis allotted
by nature, the unalienable rights of man ; which
are the fame in all countries. It will eradicate the
fuperilitions about territorial jurifdiftion ; and this
confideration muft promife an additional fecurity
againft the poflibility of war.

CHAP.

( loi )

CHAP. IV.

The Admin'iftration of Juftice,

T T would be a curious fpeculation, and perhaps
as ufeful as curious, to confider how far the
moral nature of man is affe(5led by the organiza-
tion of fociety j and to what degree his predomi-
nant qualities depend on the nature of the govern-
ment under which he lives. The adage. That men
are every where the Jame^ though not wholly falfe,
would doubtlefs be found to be true only in a limit-
ed fenfe. I Jove to indulge the belief, that it is
true fo far as to enfure permanency to inftitu-
tions that are good ; but not fo far as to difcou-
rage us from attempting to reform thofe that are
bad. To confider it as true in an unlimited fenfe,
vyould be to ferve the purpofes of defpotifm ; for
-• H •? which

( 102 )

■which this, like a thou fand other maxims, has been
invented and employed. It would teach us to fit
down with a gloomy fatisfadion on the ftate of
human affairs, to pronounce the race of man em-
phatically " fated g) be curft," a community of
fclf-tormentors and mutual aiTaflins, bound down
by the irrefiftible deftiny of their nature to be rob-
bed of their reafon by priefts, and plundered of
their property by kings. It would, teach us to join
with Soame Jenyns, and furnifh new weapons to
the oppreflbrs, by our manner of pitying the mif-
fortunes of the opprefled.

In confirmation of this adage, and as an apology
for the exifting defpotifms,,it is faid. That all men
are by nature tyrants, and will exercife their tyran-
nies, whenever they find opportunity. Allowing
this afiertion to be true, it is furely cited by the
-wrong party. It is an apology for equal, and not
for unequal governments j and the weapon belongs
to thofe who contend for the republican principle.
If government be founded on the vices of man-
kind, its bufinefs is to reftrain thtofe vices in all,
rather than to fbfter them in a few. The difpofi-

tion

( 103 )

tion to tyrannize is efFecStually retrained under the
exercife of the equality of rights; while it is not
only rewarded in the few, but invigorated in the
many, under all other forms of the focial con-
nexion. But it is almoft'impoffible to decide,
among moral pFopenfities, which of them belong
to nature, and which are the offspring of habit;
how many of our vices are chargeable on the per-
manent qualities of man, and how m.any rcfuk
from the mutable energies of ftate.

If it be in the power of a bad government to
render men worfe than nature has made them,
why fliould we fay it is not in the power of a good
one to render them better ? and if the latter be ca-
pable of producing this effe6t in any perceivable
degree, where ihall we limit the progrefs of human
wifdom and the force of its inftitutions, in amelio-
rating not only the focial condition, but the coo--
trolling principles of man ?

Among the component parts of government,
that, whofe operation is the moft direft on the
vnoral habits of life, is the Adminiftration of Jufticc.

H 4 In

( 104 )

In this every perfon has a peculiar ifolated intercfl:,
which is almoft detached from the common fym-^
pathies of fociety. It is this which operates with a
lingular concentrated energy, colledting the whole
force of the flate from the community at large,
and bringing it to aft upon a fingle individual,
afFefling his life, reputation or property j fo that
the goyerning power may fay with peculiar pro-
priety to the miniAer of juflice, divide et impera ;
for, in cafe,of opprcfTion, the vidim's cries will be
too feeble to excite oppofition j his caufe having
nothing in common with that of the citizens at
large. If therefore we would obtain an idea of the
condition of men on any given portion of the earth,
we muft pay a particular attention to their judiciary
fyftem, not in its form and theory, but in its fpirit
and praflice. It may be faid in general of this
part of the civil polity of a nation, that as it is a
Hream flowing from the common fountain of the
government, and muft be tinged with whatever
impurities are found in the fource from whence it
defcends, the only hope of cleanfing the ftream is
by purifying the fountain.

If

( los )

If I were able to give an energetic Iketch of the
office and dignity of a rational fyftem of jurif-
prudence, defcribe the full extent of Its effects oa
the happinefs of men, and then exhibit the per-
verfions and corruptions attendant on this bu-^
finefs in moll of the governments of Europe, it
would furnlfh one of the moft powerful argu-
ments in favor of a general revolution, and
afford no fmall confolation to thofe perfbns
who look forward with certainty to fuch an
event. But my plan embraces too many fub-
jects, to be particular on any j all that I can
promife myfelf, is to feize the rough features of
fyftems, and mark the moral attitudes of maa
as placed in the neceflary pofture to fqpport
them.

It is generally underftood that the ob]e<5t of
government, in this part of its adminiftration,
is merely to rejlrain the vices of men. But
there is another object prior to this ; an oiEce
more facred, and equally indifpenfable, is to
prevent their vices, — to corred them in their
origin, or eradicate them totally from the

adolefcent

( '°5 )

adolefccnt mind. The latter is performed by
inftruclion, the former by coertion j the one is
the tender duty of a father, the other, the un-
relenting drudgery of a mafler ; but both are
the bufinefs of government, and ought to be
made concurrent branches of the fyftem of jurif-
prudence.

The abfurd and abominable doclrine, /i&^/ />;7-
vate vices are public benefits, \t is hoped, will be
blotted from the memory of man, expunged
from the catalogue of human follies, with the
fyftems of governments which gave it birth.
The ground of this infultiog doctrine is, that
advantage may be taken of the extravagant
foibles of individuals to increafe the revenues of
the ftatc ; as if the chief end of focicty were, to
ileal money for the government's purfe ! to be
fquandered by the governors, to render them
more infolent in their oppreflions ! It is humi-
liating, to anfwcr fuch arguments as thefe ;
where we muft lay open the mod degrading re-
treats of prolHtuted logic, to difcover the pofi-
tion? on whicn they are founded. But Orders and

Pri^

( I07 )

Privileges will lead to any thing : once teach a
man, that fome are born to command and others to
he commanded', and after that, there is no camel
too big for him to fwallow.

This idea of the objecVs to be kept in view by
the fyftem of Juftiee, involving in it the bufinefs
of prevention as well as ofreftricl^n, leads us to
fome obfervations on the particular fubjecl of
criminal jurifprudcnce. Every fociety, conli-
dered in itfelf as a moral and phyfical entity,
has the undoubted faculty of felf prefervation.
It is an independent being j and, towards other
beings in like circumftances of independence, it
has a right to ufe this faculty of defending it-
felf, without previous notice to the party ; or
without the obfervance of any duty, but that of
abftaining from offenfive operations. But when
it afts towards the members of its own family,
towards thofe dependent and defencelcfs beings
that make part of itfelf, the right of coercion is
preceded by the duty of inflru6lion. It may be
fafely pronounced, that a ftate has ?2o right to
■ funijh a man, to whom it has given no previous in-

JiruElion ;

( io8 )

JlniEl'ion ; afld cotrfcqucntly, any perfon has a
right to da any action, unlcCs he has been in-
foi mcd that it has an evil tendency. It is true,
that as relative to particular cafes, the having
given this information is a thing that the focicty
niuft fometinies^r^;//r, and is not always obliged
to prove. But thefe cafes are rare, and ought never
to form a general rule. This prefumption has
however paflcd into a general rule, and is adopt-
ed as nnivcrfal praclice. With what juftice or
propriety it is fo adopted, a very little rclle£lioiiL
vill enable us to decide.

The great outlizics of morality arc extremely
fimple and eafy to be undcrflood ; they may be
faid to be M'ritten on the heart of a man ante-
cedent to his afibciating with his fellow-crea-
tures. As a felf-dependcnt being be is felf-
inftrufledi and as long as he fhould remain a
funple child of nature^ he would receive from
nature all the leflbns necefTary to his condition.
He would be a complete moral agent ; and
flioyld he violate the rights of another indepen-
dent man lik^ himfelf, he would fin againft fuf-

ftcient

( ^09 )

ficient light, to meiit any punifliment that the
offended party might infliul upon him. Buc
fcciety opens upon us a new field of contempla-
tion ; it furnifhes man with another clafs of
rights, and impofes upon him an additional
fyftem of duties i it enlarges the fphere of his
moral agency, and mak<;s him a kind of artifi-
cial being, propelling and propelled by new de-
pendencies, in wiiidi Nature can no longer fervc
him as a guide. Being removed from her rudi-
mental fchool, and entered in the college of So-
ciety, he is called to encounter problems which
the elementary tables of his heart will not always
enable him to folve. Society then otight to be
■condftent with herfelf in her own inftkutions j
if ihe Ikctches the lines of his duty with a vari-
able pencil, too flight for his natural perception,
flic Ihould lend him her optical glaflcs to difcern
them J if fhe takes the ferule in one hand, flie
is bound to ufe the fefcuc with the other.

We rauft obferve fartlier, — that though So-
ciety itfelf be a ftatc of nature, as relative to
(the nation at large, — though it be a ftatc to

which

( 110 )

which mankind naturally recur to fatisfy their
wants and increafe the fum of their happinefs, —
though all its laws and regulations may be per-
fectly reafonable, and calculated to promote the
good of the whole, — yet, with regard to an in-
dividual member, his having conjenled to thefe
laws, or even chofen to live in the fociety, is
but 2i fiction ; and a rigid difcipline founded on a
fidion, is furely hard upon its objccl:. In gene-
ral it may be faid, that a man comes into fo-
ciety by birth ; he neither confents nor diflents
refpeding his relative condition ; he firfts opens
his eyes on that ftate of human affairs in which
the interefts of his moral affociates are infinitely
complicated j with thcfe his duties are fo blended
and intermingled, that nature can give him but
little affiftance in finding them out. His mo-
rality itfelf muft be arbitrary ; it muft be varied
at every moment, to comprehend fome local
and pofitive regulation ; his fcience is to begin
wliere that of preceding ages has ended ; his
alpha is their omega ; and he is called upon to
ad by inftindl what they have but learnt to do
from the experience of all mankind. Natural

reafon

( III )

reafon may teach me not to ftrike my neigh-
bour without a caufc j but it will never forbid
my fending a fack of wool from England, or
printing the French conftitution in Spain. Thefe
are pofitive prohibitions, which Nature has not
written in her book j fhe has therefore never
taught them to her children. The fame may
be faid of all resrulations that arife from the fecial
compadl.

It is a truth, I believe, not to be called in
que (lion, that every man is born with an im-
prefcriptible claim to a portion of the elements ;
which portion is termed his hlrih-right. So-
ciety may vary this right, as to its form, but
never can deftroy it in fubftance. She has
no control over the man, till he is born j and
the right being born with him, and being ne-
ceiTary to his exillcnce, flie can no more annihi-
late the one than the other, though fhe has
the power of new-modeling both. But on
coming into the world, he finds that the ground
which nature had proraifod him is taken up,

and

( "1 )

and in the occupancy of others; Society has
changed the form of his birth- right j the gene-
ral flock of elements, from which the lives of
men are to be fupported, has undergone a new
modification j and his portion among the reft.
He is told that he cannot claim it in its prefent
form, as an independant inheritance ; that he
muft draw on the ftock of fociety, inftead of the
ftock of nature ; that he is baniflied from the
mother, and muft cleave to the nurfe. In this
unexpected occurrence he is unprepared to act ;
but knowledge is a part of the ftock of fociety ;
and an indifpcnfable part to be allotted in the
portion of the claimant, is inJlruR'ion relative to
the new aiTangement of natural right. To
withhold this inftruftion therefore would be,
not merely the omiilion of a duty, but the
commiflion of a crime j and fociety in this cafe
would lin againft the man, before the man could
fin againft fociety.

I ftiould hope to meet the aftcnt of all un-
prejudiced readers, in carrying this idea ftill
faithcr. In cafes where ^ perfon is born of poor

parents.

( "3 )

parents, or finds hinnfelf brought Into the com-
munity of men without the means of fublifl-
cnce, fociety is bound in duty to furnifh him
the means. She ought not only to inftrucl him
in the artificial laws by which property is fe-
cured, but in the artificial induftry by which
it is obtained. She is bound, in jujiice as well
as policy, to give him fome art or trade. For
the reafon of his incapacity is, that Jhe has
ufurped his birth-right i and this is reftorlng it
to him in another form, more convenient for
both parties. The failure of fociety in this
branch of her duty, is the occafion of much the
greater part of the evils that call for criminal
jurifprudence. The individual feels that he is
robbed of his natural right ; he cannot bring
his procefs to reclaim ic from the great com-
munity, by which he is overpowered j he there-
fore feels authorized in reprifal ; in taking ano-
ther's goods to replace his own. And it muft
be confefTed, that in numberlefs inftances the
condud: of fociety juflifies him in this proceed-
ing J Ihe has feized upon his property, and com-
menced the war againft him.

I Some

( 114 )

Some, who perceive thefe truths, fay that it
is unfafe for fociety to publifli them , but I fay
it is unfafe not to publifh them. For the party
from which the mifchief is expected to arife,
has the knowledge of them already, and has
jt6ted upon them in all ages. 'Ft is the wife
who are ignorant of thefe things, and not the
foolifli. They are truths of nature ; and in
them the teachers of mankind arc the only party
that remains to be taught. It is a fubjedl on
which the logic of indigence is much clearer
than that of opulence. The latter reafons from
contrivance, the former from feeling ; and God
has not endowed us with falfe feelings, in things
that fo weightily concern our happinefs.

None can deny that the obligation is much
Wronger on me, to fupport my life, than to Tup-*
port the claim that my neighbour has to his pro-
perty. Nature commands the firft, fociety the
fecond : — in one I obey the laws of God, which
are univerfal and eternal ; in the other, the
laws .of man, which are local and temporary.

It

( "5 )

It has been the folly of all old governments,
to begin every thing at the wrong end, and to
creft their inflitutions on an inverfion of prin-
ciple. This is more fadly the cafe in their fyf-
tems of jurifprudence, than is commonly ima*
gined. Compelling juftice is always miilaken for
rendering ]u^iCG, But this important branch of
adminiftration conlifts not merely in compelling
men to be juft to each other, and individuals
to fociety, — this is not the whole, nor is it the
principal part, nor even the beginning, of the
operation. The fource of power is faid to be
the fource of juftice ; but it does not anfwer
this defcription, as long as it contents itfelf with
compidfton. Juftice muft begin by flowing from
its fource ; and the lirft as well as the moft im-
portant object is, to open its channels from fo-
ciety to all the individual members. This part
of the adminiftration being well devifed and di-
ligently executed, the other parts would leifen
away by degrees to matters of inferior conlide-
ration.

I 2 It

( 1-6 )

It is an undoubted truth, that our duty Is
infcparably conneded with our happinefs. And
why Ihould we defpair of convincing every
member of fociety of a truth fo important for
him to know? Should any perfon objedl, by
faying, that nothing like this has ever yet been
done J I anfwer, that nothing like this has ever
yet been tried. Society has hitherto been curft
with governments, whofe cxiftence depended
on the cxtinflion of truth. Every moral light
has been fmothered under the buftiel of perpe-
tual impofition ; from whence it emits but
faint and glimmering rays, always infufficicnt
to form any luminous fyllem on any of the civil
concerns of men. But thefe covers are crumb-
ling to the duft, with the governments which
they fupport ; and the probability becomes more
apparent, the more it is confidered, that fociety
is capable of cming all the evils to which it has
given birth.

It feems that men, to diminiffi the phyfical
evils that furround them, connefb themfelves
in fociety ; and from this connection their mo-
ral

( "7 )

ml evils arife. But the immediate occafion of
the moral evils is nothing more than the re-
mainder of the phyfical that ftill exift even un-
der the regulations that fociety makes to banifh
them. The dired: objedt therefore of the go-
vernment ought to be, to deftroy as far as pof-
iible the remaining quantity of phyfical evils j
and the moral would fo far follow their deftruc-
tion. But the miftakc that is always made on
this fubject is, that governments, inftead of
laying the ax at the root of the tree, aim their
flrokes at the branches ; they attack the moral
evils directly by vindictive juftice, inftead of re-
moving the phyfical by diilributive juftice.

There are two diftinct kinds of phyfical evils ;
one arifes from want, or the apprehenfion of
want J the other from bodily difeafe. The for-
mer leems capable of being removed by fociety ;
the latter is inevitable. But the latter gives
no occafion to moral diforders ; ic being the
common lot of all, we all bear our part in
filence, without complaining of each other, or
revenging ourfelves on the community. As it

I 3 is

( n8 )

IS out of the power of our neighbour's goods
to relieve us, we do not covet them for this
purpofe. The former is the only kind from
which moral evils arife i and to this the ener-
gies of government ought to be chiefly dire(fl-
ed } efpecially that part which is called the ad*
miniftration of jufticc.

No nation is yet fo numerous, nor any coun-
try fo populous, as it is capable of becoming.
Europe, taken together,, would fupport at leaft
five times its prefent number, even on its pre-
fent fyftem of cultivation ; and how many times
■this increafed population may be multiplied by
new difcoveries in the infinite fcience of fub-
fiilence, no man will pretend to calculate. This
of itfclf is fufficient to prove, that fociety at
prefent has the means of rendering all its mem-
bers happy in every refpeft, except the removal
of bodily difeafe. The common (lock of the
community appears abundantly fufficient for
this purpofe. By common ftock, I would not
be underftood to mean the goods exclufively
appropriated to individuals* Exclufive property

is

t «>9 )

It not only confiflent with good order among
men, but it feems, and perhaps really is, necef-
fary to the exiftence of fociety. But the com-
mon flock of which I fpeak, confifts, firft, in
knowledge^ or the improvements which men have
made in the means of acquiring a fupport ; and
fecondly, in the contributims which it is necef-
fary Ihould be colleded from individuals, and
applied to the maintenance of tranquillity in
the ftate. The property exclufively belonging
to individuals, can only be the furpluffage re-
maining in theh' hands, after deducting what
is necelTary to the real wants of fociety. So-
ciety is the firft proprietor ; as ftie is the origi-
nal caufe of the appropriation of wealth, and
its indifpcnfablc guardian in the hands of the
individual.

Society then is bound, in the firft place, to
diftribute knowledge to every perfon according
to his wants, to enable him to be ufeful and
happy ; fo far as to difpofe him to take an ac-
tive intereftin the welfare of the ftate. Secondfyy
I /^ where

( J2P )

where the faculties of the individual are natu-
rally defective, fo that he remains unable to
provide for himfelf, ihe is bound ftill to fupport
and render him happy. It is her duty in all
cafes to induce every human creature, by rati-
onal motives, to place his happinefs in the tran-
quillity of the public, and in the fecurityof
individual peace and property. But thirdly^ in
cafes where thefe precautions fhall fail of their
effcci, flic is driven indeed to the laft extremi-
ty,— fhe is to ufe the rod of correction. Thefe
inflances would doubtlefs be rare; and, if we
could fuppofe a long continuance of wife admi-
niftration, fuch as a well organized government
would enfure to every nation in the world, wc
may aTmoft perfuadc ourfelves to believe, that
the neceffity for punifhment would be reduced
to nothing.

O'

Proceeding however on the fuppofition of
the exiftence of crimes, it muft flill remain an
objeft of legiflative wifdom, to difcriminatc be-
tween their different clafles, and apply to each

its

( 121 )

its proper remedy, in the quantity and mode
of punifhment. It is no part of my fubjccl to
enter into this enquir}', any farther than fimply
to obferve, that it is the charadlerifiic of arbi-
trary governments to be jealous of their power.
And, as jealoufy is, of all human paffions, the
mod vindidive and the leaft rational, thefe go-
vernments feek the revenge of injuries in the
mod abfurd and tremendous puniftiments that
their fury can invent. As far as any rule can
be difcovered in their gradation of punifiiments,
it appears to be this. That the feverity of the
penalty is in proportion to the injuftice of the
law. The reafon of this is limple, — the laws
which counteract nature the moft, are the moft
likely to be violated.

The publication, within the lad half century,
of a great number of excellent treatifes on the
fubjed of penal laws, without producing the
lead effed, in any part of Europe, is a proof
that no reform is to be expe(fled in the general
fydcm of criminal jurifpirudence, but from a

radical

( 122 )

radical change iii the principle of govern-
ment *.

A methcxi of communicating inflruclion to
every member of fociety, is not difficult to dif-
cover, and would not be expenfive in practice.
The government generally eflablifhes miniflers
of juftice in every part of the dominion. The
firft object of thefe minifters ought to be, to
fee that every pcrfon is well, inftructed in his
duties and in his rights j that he is rendered
perfectly acquainted with- every law, in its true
fpirit and tendency, in order that he may know
the reafon of his obedience, and the manner of
obtaining redrefs, in cafe he fhould deem it un-
juft ; that he is taught to feel the cares and in-
terefts of an adive citizen, to confider himfelf

• The compaffionate little treatife of Beccaria, dei delitti e delle
pejUf is getting to be a manual in all languages. It has already
ferved as an introduftionto many luminous elTays on the policy
»nd right of punilhment, in which the fpirit of enquiry is pur-
fued mudi farther than that benevolent philofophcr, furrounded
^ he is by the united fabres of feudal and ecclefiaftical tyranny*
has dared to purfue it.

as

(123 )

as a real member of the flate, know that the
government is his own, that the fociety Is hi&
friend, and that the ofEcers of the ftate are the
fervants of the people. A perfon poffefling
thefe ideas will never violate the law, unlefs it
be from'neceflity i and fucli ncceffity is to be
prevented by means which are equally obvious.

For the purpofes of compulfive juftice, it h
not enough that the laws be rendered familiar
to the people; but the tribunals ought to be
near at hand, eafy of accefs, and equally open
to the poor as to the rich ; the means of com-
ing at juftice fliould be cheap, expeditious and
certain ; the mode of procefs fliould be fimple
and perfectly intelligible to the meaneft capacity,
unclouded with myfteries and un perplexed with
forms. In fliort, juftice fliould familiarife itfelf
as the well-known friend of every man ; and
the confcquence feems natural, that every man
would be a friend to juftice.

After conftdering what is the duty of fociety,
«Qd what luou/d be the pradice of a well-orga-

3 nized

( 124 )

nized government, relative to the fubjeft of
this chapter, it is almoft ufelefs to enquire,
what is the practice of all the old governments
of Europe. We may be fure beforehand, that
it is dire£lly the contrary, — that, like all other
parts of the fyftcm, it is the inverfion of every
thing that is right and reafonable. The pyra-
mid is every where fet on the little end, and
all forts of extraneous rubbifh arc conflantly
brought to prop it up.

Unequal governments are neceffarily found-
ed in ignorance, and they muft be fupported by
ignorance ; to deviate from their principle,
would be voluntary fuicide. The firft great
object of their policy is to perpetuate that un-
difturbed ignorance of the people, which is the
companion of poverty, the parent of crimes,
and the pilUr of the flate.

In England, the people at large are as per-
fectly ignorant of the adts of parliament after
they are made, as they poflibly can be before.
They are printed by one man only, who is

called

( 125 ,).

called the king's printer, — in the old German
character, which few men can read, — and fold
at a price that few can afford to pay. But left
fome fcraps or comments upon them fhould
come to the people through the medium of
public news -papers, every fuch paper is ftamped
with a heavy duty ; and an act of parliament is
made, to prevent men from lending their pa-
pers to each other ^ ; fo thar, not one perfon
in a hundred fees a news-paper once in a year.
If a man at the bottom of Yorkfhire difcovers
by inftinft that a law is made, which is inter-
efting for him to know, he has only to make
a journey to London, find out the king's prin-

* As this work may chance to fall into the hands of fonie
people who never fee the ads of parliament (the fame precau-
tions not being taken to prevent its circulation) it is out of com-
paffion to that clafs of readers, that I give this information. It
is a duty of humanity, to fave our fellow-creatures from falling
into fnares, even thofe that arc fpread for them by the govern-
ment. Therefore : Notice is hereby given to all perfons, to
whom thefe prefcnts fliaH'come, that the penalty for letting
a news-paper, within the kingdom of Great-Britain, is fifty
pounds.

tcr.

C 1=6 )

tcr, pay a penny a page for the law, and learn
the German alphabet. He is then prepared to
fpell out his duty.

As to the general fyflem of the laws of the
land, on which all property depends, no man
in the kingdom knows them, and no man pre-
tends to know them. They are a fathomlefs
abyfs, that exceeds all human faculties to found.
They are ftudied, not to be underftood, but to
be difputed ; not to give information, but to
breed confufion. The man whofe property is
depending on a fuit at law, dares not look into
the gulph that feparates him from the wiflied-for
decifion ; he has no confidence in himfelf, noc
in reafon, nor in juftice ; he mounts on the
back of a lawyer, like one of Mr. Burke's he-
roes of chivalry between the wings of a griffin,
and trufts the pilotage of a man, who is fuperior
to himfelf, only in the confidence which refults
from having nothing at ftakc.

To penetrate into what are called the courts
of juftice, on the continent, and expofe the ge-
neral

( 127 ) .

n^ral fyftem of their adminiftratlon, in thofc
points which are common to mod countries in
Europe, would be to lay open an inconceivable
fcene of iniquity } it would be,

** To pour in light on Pluto's drear abodes,
Abhorr'd by men, and dreadful e'ea to gods."

What are we to do with our fenfibility, with our
honcft iriftind of propriety, — how refrain from
exclamations of horror, while we contemplate
a fet of men, afluming the facred garb of juf-
tice, for the uniform and well-known purpofe
of felling their decifions to the higheft bidder !
For a judge to receive a bribe, we fhouid think
an indelible ftain upon his character as a man ;
but what fhall we fay of the flate of human na-
ture, where it is no difgrace to him as 2i judge f
Where it is not only expecfted as a matter of
courfe, and praftifed without difguife, but is
made almoft a neceffary part of the judiciary
fyftem ?

Whether the pra6lice of receiving bribes was
the original idea on which is founded the vena"

lity

( 128 )

lity of offices in modern governments, it is not
to our purpofe to enquire. But certain it is,
they are concomitant ideas, and coextenfivc
pradices j and it is dcfigned that they Ihould be
fo. In France, before the revolution, the office
of judge was not indeed hereditary, like that
of king; but it was worfe; it was held up for
fale by the king, .and put at audlion by the mi-
nifter. As a part of the king's revenue arofe
from the fale of juflice, the government fold
all the offices in that department at fixed prices-;
but the minifter made the bargains iwith thofe
who would give him moft. Thus the feats
of the judges became obje^ of fpeculation,
open to all the world ; and the man whofe con-
fcience was the beft fitted to make a profitable
trade of deciding caufes, could afford to give
the higheft price, and was confequently fure to
be judge.

Juftice then was a commodity which necefla-
rily gave a profit to three lets of men, before it
could be purchafed by the fuitor; even fup-
pofing it might have flowed to him in a direct

channel. ■

( 129 )

ohannel. But this was a thing impollible : there
were other defcriptions of men, more nume-
rous, if not more greedy, than thofe of whom
we have fpoken, through whofe hands it muft
pafs and repafs, before it could arrive at the
client, who had paid his money to the judge.
Thefe men, who infefted the tribunals in all
flages of the bufinefs, were divided in France
into about fix claiTcs. For want of the precife
names in Engliih to defignate all their official
tliftin^lions, we fliall rank the whole under the
general appellation of Lawyers ^. But though
\v'e here confound them together, as we often
do objedls at a diftance ; yet they were not to
be fo treated by the client. He muft addrefs
them all diftindly and refpeftfully, with the
fame argnmentum ad patronumy with which he had
addreffed the judge; as one or more of each

• To avoid any fafjncion of exaggeration, I will mention bf
their original nam^ fuch of thefe clalTes as occur to me. There
mtXQ the ccnfeilieTy t^vocat, procurtur^ fecretaire da juge, greffier,
hwjjler-prijeuri huijjier-audiencier , with all their clerks, who iBuft
likewife all be paid, or the caufe would ftop in any ftage of it»
progrefs.

K cJaGi

( I30 )

clafs had a neceflfary part in bringing forward
and putting backward every caufe that came
into court.

Lawyers in France ferved two important pur-
pofes, which it is fuppofed they do not ferve
in England : they added confiderably to the re-
venues of the crown by the purchafe of their
places j and they covered the iniquity of the
judges under the impenetrable veil of their
own. In a caufe of ordinary confequence,
there was more writing to be done in France
than there is even in England, perhaps by a
hundred and fifty pages. The reafon of this
was, that it was more neceflary to involve the
queftion in myfteries and perplexities that lliould
be abfolutely infcrutable. For it muft never
be known, either at the time of trial or ever
after, on what point or principle the caufe was
decided. To anfwer thi$ end, the multiplying
of the different orders of the managers, as well
as increafing the quantity of writing, had an
admirable effeft ; it removed the poflibility of
fixing a charge of fraud or mifmanagement on
6 any

i

( U' )

any one of the great fraternity, or of difcovering,
among the formidable piles of papers and parch-
ments that enveloped the myfteries of the trial,
in what flage the iniquity was introduced.

To call this whole fyftem of operations a fc-
lemn farce, is tb give no utterance to our feel-
ings ; to fay it is a fplendid mockery of juflice,
by which individuals are robbed of their pro-
perty, is almoft to fpeak in its praife. The re-
flccling mind cannot reft upon it a moment,
without glancing over fociety, and bewailing
the terrible inroads made upon morals public
and private, the devaftation of principle, the
outrage upon nature, the degradation of the
Jafl particle of dignity by which we recognize
our own refemblance in man.

Its obvious tendency is, by its enormous ex-
pence, to bar the door of juflice againft the
poor, who. in fuch countries are furc to form
the great body of mankind, — to render them
enemies to fociety, by teaching that fociety is
an enemy to them, — to ftimulate them to crimes,
K 2 both

both from their own neceffities, and frdra thf
example of their maftfrs, — and to fpread over
the people at large an incruftation of ignorance,
which, excluding all ideas of their duties and
their rights, compels them to forget their rela-
tion to the human i-ace.

Are thefe to be ranked among the circum-
ftances, which call for a change in the govern-
ments of Europe ? Or arc we to join with Mr.
Burke, and lament as an evil of the French re-
Volution, " That the ancient fyftem of jurif-
" prudence will no more be ftudied ?'* The
whining of that good gentleman on this idea,
is about as rational, as it would be to lament
that the noble fcience of Heraldry was in dan-
ger of being forgotten ; or that men had loll
the myflical meaning of Abracadabra. This
word, ferving as a charm, anfwcred the fame
purpofe in Medicine, as heraldry does in Ho-
nor; or' the old jurifprudence, in Juftice: it
rendered men fuperftitious ; and confequentlyi
immoral and unhappy.

tt

( ^33 )

it is fo fafhionable in Europe, efpecially
among Engliflimen, to fpeak in praife of the
Englilli jurifprudence, and to confider it as a
model of perfection, that it may feem neceflary
for a perfon to begin with an apology for offer-
ing his ideas on that fubjecl, if he means to
deviate from the opinion fo generally eftabliflied.
But, inftead of doing this, I will begin by apo-
logizing for thofe who at this day fupport the
eftabliflied opinion : Your faireft apology. Gen-
tlemen, is, that you underftand nothing of the
matter. To affign any other^ would be Iqfs
favourable to your characters as honeft men.

Exclufive of the rules by which the merits of
a caufc are to be decided (and which, if they
could be afccrtained, would be the law) the
mere for?n of bringing a queftion before a court
is of itfelf a Icicnce, an art, lefs underftood, and
more difficult to learn, than the conftruclion
and ufe of the moft complicated machine, or
even the motions of the heavenly bodies.
It is not enough, that the adminillration of
K 3 juflicc

( '34 )

^uflicc (which ought to be as limplc as pofliblc)
is fo involved in perplexity, that none but men
of proFeffional fkill can pretend to underftand it,
but the profefTors are divided, as in France, into
Teveral diftincl claflTes , each of which is abfo-
lutely neceflary to lend a helping hand in every
ftep of the progrefs of a caufe. This dark mul-
tiplicity of form has not only removed the
knowledge of law from the generality of men,
but has created fuch an expence in obtaining
juftice, that very few ever make the attempt.
•The courts are .effectually fhut againft the great
body of the people, and juftice as much out of
their reach, as if no laws exifted ^,

Thofe

* The proviiion made in the Englifh law, enabling a pcrfon
to bring his fuit in forma pauperis i is rather an infult than a real
advantage. Certainly, not one perfon in a hundred, who is
deprived of juftice in the ordinary courfe, would ever feck it in
this ; as, in order to be entitled to it, he muft go into court
and fwear that he has not property enough to profecute his
claim. A young tradefman, and in general every perfon who
wifhes to carry on bufinefs, or has fpirit enough to feek for
juftice, has a higher intereft in eftablilhing a credit among his

con-

( 135 )

Tliofe who have attempted to ^urchafe juf-
tice through the neceffary forms, have never*
been known to pronounce eulogies on the courts.
But their number has always been fo fmall, that,^
had they uttered the anathemas that the fyflem
deferves, their feeble voice could fcarcely have
been heard. No man, whofe eyes are not blind-
ed by fees or by prejudice, can look upon the
enormous mafs of writings which accumulate irj,
a caufe, without relieving with indignation on
the expence; one hundredth part of which
would have been more than fufficient for evefy
purpofe of obtaining juftice between the parties.
A writer who fliould give the names and de-
ibriptions of the various parts of a procefs, with
the expences annexed to each part, would
fcarcely gain credit, except with profeflional
men. Several hundred pounds are expended

connexions in bufinefs, than in profecuting any ordinary fuit at
law. He knows, that to expofe his own poverty, efpecially
in a commercial country, would be irretrievable ruin ; it woul4
bp a /o/?/;i''<f injury ; while fetting down with the lofs of his
tight, without bringing his fuit, is only a negative injury.

K 4 only

( "JS )

only in writing Bills, Subpoenas, Pleas, De-
murrers, Anfwers, Petitions, Orders, Motions,
Amendments, Notices, Reports, &c. in a iin-^
gle caufe, where no witnefs is called.

Ldt ti8 trace a few of the windings, and fee
where fome of the paths lead, which are laid
down as neceflary to obtaining a decifion in
Chancery ; we Ihall there find how hundreds,
and fometimes thoufands of pounds are expend-
ed in a caufe, before any defence is fet up, and
where no defence is ever intended to be fet up.
The fuitor begins his incomprehenfible opera-
tion, by dating his claim, in what is called a
B'tlli which he leaves at a certain office belong-
ing to the court, and obtains an order, called a
fubpoena, for fummoning the defendant. This
being done, the court requires the defendant to
fend an Attorney to write his name at another
office of the court. This writing the name, i^
called an appearance ; it anfwers no poffible pur-
pofe, but that of encreafmg expences and fees
of office, for which it is a powerful engine.
For if the defendant does not comply, an ex-
pence

( "37 )

pence of thoufands of pounds may be made, to
compel him. A capias^ a procefs for outlazvr^^
a commilTion of rebellion, and an order and
commiflion oi fequeft ration, are purfued in their
proper rotine, till he confents to write his
name.

If the plaintiff has property to go through
this procefs, he may be faid to be able juft to
keep his ground ; and his caufe is in every re-
fpeft precifcly where it was ac lirft. If he has
not fufficient property, the caufe is lofl for
want of fees ; and he is no better than if ho
tad never been able to have begun the fuit.

We will however fuppofe that the defendant
Tery good-naturedly writes his name; he is
then entitled to a certain delay, during v/hich,
the court informs him, he muft plead, demur,
or anfwer to the bi 1. When this time expires,
he is entitled to a farther delay of four weeks.
But though he is entitled to this farther delay,
and neither the plaintiff nor the court can re-
fufc it J Hill he muit employ a follicitor to make

a brief

( '38 )

a brief for counfcl ; and this follicitor mufl: at-
tend the counfel, and give him and his clerk
their fees, for moving the court for this delay,
which cannot be rcfufed. The counfel muft
attend the court and make the motion ; the
follicitor muft attend the court, and pay fpr thq
order, entry and copy j and then muft caufe it
to be fcrved.

At the end of this term of four weeks, the
defendant is entitled to a farther delay of three
weeks ; which again cannot be refufed. But he
jnuft pay his follicitpr for drawing and engrofling
a petition for that purpofe, and the petition muft
be prefented, and anfwered ; for which he muft
pay ; he muft alfo pay for order, entry, copy, and
fcrvice. At the end of thefe three weeks he is
in the fame manner entitled tp a farther delay
of two weeks ; but the fame farce muft be a(f|;ed
over again, to obtain it. And a very folemn farc^
it is to the parties, a very pleafant farce to th^
officers of the court, and a very ridiculous farce
^p eyery body elfe.

If,

( 139 )

If, during all this time, the defendant hacl
ftopt paying, or the follicitor had ftopt writing,
the fame procefs, which was ufed to compel his
appearance, muft have been repeated : to wit,
capias, outlawry, commiffion of rebellion, andy^-
quijlratioit. But we have arrived at the tim^
when the defendant is in duty bound to anfwe^:
tp the bill i and here, if he does not anfwer,
then capias, outlaivry, rebellion and fequejlratiot^
^gain.

Thefe terms mim be explained to the reader ;
and this is the beft opportunity to do it. For the
qaufe Hill remaining precifely where it was a^;
firft, we may fuppofe it fufficiently at reft, not
to move during the explanation. A capias \%
an order, to take the man, and hold him in
goal till he obeys the order of the cpurt ; whe-
ther it be to write his name, or any thing elfc.
The word outlawry explains, of itfelf, this hor-
rid engine of the court. A commiflion of rebeU
lion is an order iflued, after the officer with the
capias has fearched and cannot find the man,
and after an outlawry has taken place. It iij

dire(flcd

( HO )

dire(5lcd to other perfons, requiring them to
take up the naan who was guilty of rebellion
in refufing to write his name. But as the officer
with the capias, before outlawry, could not find
the man, the iffiiing the commiflion of rebel-
lion new, has no other meaning but fees, A
feqttefiration is taking the whole property of the
defendant into the hands of the court. And
when this is done, the caufe is foon done alfo j
for no eftate could lad long there. When the
money is gone, the proceedings ceafe.

But let us fuppofe that the defendant has
complied with all orders thus far, and has put
in a good and fufficient anfwer. Let us leave
out of our account all motions, petitions, de-
crees, orders, &c. for amending the bill, for
referring to Mafters the infufficiency of anfwers,
reports upon thofe anfwers, and farther anfwers,
and exceptions to Mafters' reports, and orders and
dccifions relative to them; and, inftead of en-
quiring into the expcnce of thefe, let us go back;
and afk what is the ufe of all, or of any part of
tl;i5 procefs ? Thirty thoufand Lawyers (this is
2 faid

( t4« )

faid to be the number in tlie kingdom) are now
living on juft fuch fluff as the procefe here de-
fcribed ; and I call on them all, to point out the
purpofe that any of it ever ferved, or ever catt
ferve, to their clients.

It muft be remembered, that all the proceed-
ings thus far, were to end in three pretended
•objects, — to compel an appearance; to obtain
the uftzal and legal time for the defendant to
prepare his anfwer, and to compel him to gi^-^c
his anfwer. For the appearafice, which is the
folemn appellation given to the action of writing
a name, it would be an infult to the underftand-
ing of a child, to tell him that this could be of
any fervicc towards forwarding ju (lice. Next
comes the fuccefllon of applications and orders,
for time to anfwer the bill. The practice of the
court, which is the law in this cafe, allows the
defendant, firft a fliort term, and then the delay
of four weeks, three weeks, and two weeks ;
which in all reckonings, unlefs it be in law,
make nine weeks. And if that be a rcafonabk

time

( U2 )

time, whfcn divided into three parts, why Is it
not fo before it is divided ? And if neither tht
party, nor the court, rior any body elfe; has a
right to refufc that term Crf time, why might
not the defendant take it, without the expence
of a&ing three times ? The remainder of the
procefs goes to compel the defendant to give in
an anfwer to the bill. And what is the impor-
tance of an anfwer ? To folve this queftion, let
tis confider the object of the bill, to which the
anfwer is required.

The bill exprcfles the claim of the plaintiff,
and points out the nature of the decree, which
he prays may be made in his favor againft the
defendant. Notice is given to the defendant,
that fuch a fuit is pending, and that he may
appear and flibw caufe why the decree fhould
not be made. Having given this notice, it is
not only cruel, but abfurd, to think of forcing
him to defend himfclf, whether he will or no.
One would fuppofe it little to the purpofe, tq
make the attempt. Why may not the fubpoena,

which

( '43 )

which gives notke to the defendant, point out
the day, beyond which he cannot give an an-
fwer ? then, if he choofcs to defend, hear him
candidly j but if he refufes to come, and does
not choofe to defend, — proceed in the caufej
he is willing that the decree fliould pafs. Can
it be reafonable, — can it be any thing Ihort of
flat contradidion and nonfenfe, to compel him
to appear, to compel him to afk for a delay, and
to compel him to defend ? Can his defence be
neceffary in doing juftice to the plaintifi'? And,
if he will not defend himfelf, can you make
him ? Can any one of the whole hoft of ail the
profeiTions of the law, £how the.leafl Shadow of
ufe in all this flourifli of procefs thus far, but
f£&5 on the one hand, and opprejjion on the
other ?

To proceed through all the forms, to the ^nd
of a fuit in Chancery, would be to write a com-
mentary on many volumes of practice, and
would be calling the patience of the reader to a
trial from which it would certainly fhrink. But

there

( 144 )

there are parts as much worfe than what wc
have defcribed, as this is worfe than common
fenfe. Strip from the Adminiftration of Juftice
the forms that are perfeflly ufelefs and oppref-
Cve, and counfcllors will have much lefs to do J
while the whole order of attornies and folli-
citors will fall to the ground. If the myfteries
of nonfenfe were out of the way, a counft-llor
who was called upon to hazard his reputation
on the manner of conducling his clicnt*s caufe,
would no more have it prepared and brought
forward by an attorney, than a man of bufincfs
would hazard his fortune by doing that bulinefs
through an ignorant agent, which he could
more eaflly do himfelL The quantity of writ-
ing, really neceffary, in a fimple and dignified
fyftem of praclice, is fo fmall, as to be perhaps
incredible to thofe who are acquainted only
with the Englifli procefs.

I have feen the mode of conducting this bufi-
nefs in a country, where the common law of
England is the general rule of decifion, and

wher«

C Hi )

where the adjudications of Weflminfler-hall are
authorities, as much as they are in Great-Bri-
tain. But the laws of that country have ftripped
legal procefs of its principal follies ; and the
confequence is, that the whole profeflion of at-
tornies and follicitors has vaniflied. The cotin-
fellor does the whole buiinefs of his client ; and
fo fimple is the operation, that a man may with
eafe commence, and carry through every flage,
to final judgment and execution, five hundred
caufes in a year. And the whole proceedings in
all thefe fhall not afford writing enough to em-
ploy a fingle clerk one hour in twen£y.four.
The proceedings and judgments in five hun-
dred caufes, in this country, would fill a ware-
houfe. And yet in that country, every alle-
gation is neceflary in their declaration and plead-
ings, which is neceflary in Weftminfter- hall.
As they are not paid by the line, their declara-
tions have but one Count, and in that Count
there is no tautology. And fo little is the ex-
pence of fuits, where no more is done than is
neceflary for juftice ; that judgment, in a caufe
where there is no defence, may be obtained for

L lefs

r 146 )

lefs than ten fhlllings j and every perfon cm-
ployed be fully paid for his fervice ^.

Men

• As tliis may awaken the curiofity of Tome of my readers, 1
will give the details. Suppofe a fuit to recover money due on
Note or Bond : The writ and declaration are incorporated in
one infttument ; that is, the declaration is contained in the
writ. The (herifF is ordered to read this to the defendant, or
leave a copy at his dwelling, at leaft twelve days previous to
the fitting of the court. This writ is ufually filled up in a well-
known form, in a printed blank ; of which a man may with
eafe fill a hundred in a day. For this the court taxes one {hil-
ling and fix-pence. The fheriflF, if he has no travel to the de-
fendant, is paid fix-pence for reading the writ to him, and
delivering it to the clerk of the court. It is then the duty of
the plaintiff", or of his lawyer, (who is both counfellor and
foUicitor) to attend the coart on the firft day of the fitting ;
and then the parties in all caufes are called by the cryer. For
this attendance the court will tax three (hillings and four-pence
halfpenny ; and if the defendant intends to make no defence h»
will not anfwer when called ; and the clerk thereupon, on the
third day after calling, if no motion is made by the defendant,
enters judgment for the plaintiff; for which he has about two
(hillings ; one fhillings more is ppid for a writ of execution,
which is in form and effed 2^ fieri facias ^ a capias adfatisfaciendum,
and an elegit : that is, it goes againft the goods and chattels of the
debtor j and if the fheriff cannot find thofe, he is to take the

1)ody,

( 147

Men who are habituated to the expences in-
curred in law-fuits in England, will fcarcely be
perfuaded of the extent to which a reform
would be carried, on a general deftrudion of
abufes. But let them reflect, J:hat when law
proceedings are dripped of every thing, but
what the nature of the fubject requires, there
is no myftery left. The rational part that re-
mains is foon comprehended, and eafily retained
in memory. This would doubtlcfs augment
the number of fuits ; for it would open the
courts to vafl: multitudes of people, againft
whom they are now effe<5lually fhut. But in
proportion as it increafed the number of law-
fuits, it would diminifh the quantity of law-
hvfmefs ; and the number of lawyers would
dwindle to one tenth of what it is at prefent.
In the country above alluded to, the number
of men fupported by this profeflion is to the
whole population, as one to 4600. Reduce the
lawyers here to that proportion, and there would

body, or the land. Added to thefe cofts, there is a duty of
IS. 6d. to government. Thefe feveral charges are an ample
reward for all ferviccs rendered.

L 2 be

( 148 )

be left about three thoufand in the kingdom.
It is aflerted, (I know not on what ground)
that the prefent number is thirty thoufand. Al-
lowing it to be true, an army of twenty- feven
thoufand lawyers, on this reform, would find
fome other employment. But whether the re-
duction would amount to the number here fup-
pofed, or to half of it, is a queftion of little
mopLiept. Saving the expence of maintaining
twenty or thirty thoufand men in a ufelefs OiC-
cupation, and fending them to profitable bufi^
pefs, however important the object may appear,
bears po proportion to the advantage of open-
ing the doo|:of juftice to the people, and ha-
bituatiijg them to an eafy and well-known me-
thod of demanding their right.

Tlnere is a ftrange idegi prevalent in England,
(it has had its day in America) that it is good
policy to raife the expences of legal proceed-
ings above the reach of |he lower clafifes of
people ; as it leflens the number of fuits. This
kind of reafoning appears too abfurd to fup-
port its own weight for a moment; and it

would

( H9 )

would be beneath our ferious notice, were it
not for the refledioH, that men of fuperficial
refearch are perpetually caught by it. The hu-
man mind is fitted, from its own indolence, to
be dazzled by the glare of a propofition ; and
to receive and utter for truth, what it never
gives itfelf the trouble to examine. There is
no paradox among all the enormities of defpo-
tifm, but what finds its advocates from this
very circumftance. We mull not therefore fcorn
to encounter an argument becaufe it is foolifh.
The bufinefs of fober philofophy is often a tafk
of drudgery ; it muft fometimes liften to the
moft incoherent clamours, which would be un-
worthy of its attention, did they not form a
part of the general din, by which mankind arc
deafened and mifled.

For a man to bring into court a fuit that is
manifeflly unjuft, is a crime againft the ftatej
to hinder him from bringing one that is juft, is
a crime of the ftate againft him. It is a poor
compliment to the *wifdom of a nation, to fup-
pofe that no method can be devifed for pre-
4 venting

( 150 )

venting the firfl of thefc evils, without run-
Ding into the laft ; and the lad is ten times the
greateft of the two. The French, who appear
to have been deftined to give leflbns to the
world by the wifdom of their "new inftitutions,
as well as by the folly of their old, have found
the fecret of impofipg a fmall fine on a vexa-
tious plaintiff; and of eflablifhing many other
regulations on this fubjecl, which eneftuaUy
fiiut the door of the tribunal againfl: the op-
preifor, while it eafily opens to the feebleft cry
of the opprefTed.

They have likewife cftablifhed a method of
comniunicatinsr the knowledge of the laws to
cveiy human creature in the kingdom, how-
ever ignorant he may be in other refpects.
They are printed and pafted up on public build-
ings in every town and village, and read and
explained by the curate from the pulpit in every
parifh. It is in contemplation likewife to in-
ftitute a general fyflem of public inftruclion,
on a more ufeful and extenfive plan than has
ever yet been devifed. Several enlightened phi-

lofopher^

( «S' )

lofophcrs are buficd in thefe refearches ; and fe-
veral focieties are formed, whofe object is to
difcover and. bring forward tlie beft concerted
plan for this important purpofe. In their whole
lyftem of diftributing knowledge 2Xid. jujiice, they
feem to be aiming at a degree of perfection
which promifes great fuccefs. With all my par-
tiality for the inftitutions of the United States,
I fliDuld quote them (in comparifon, to thofe
of France) with lefs confidence on the fubjed of
this chapter, than of any other.

In the adminiftration of juftice, the Ameri-
cans are too much attaclied to the Engliili forms;
which fcrve to increafe the expence and to myf-
ticife the bufmefs, to a degree that is manifeftly
inronliftent with the dignity of a true republic.
But in refpect to Public Inftruclion, there are
fome circumftances which deferve to be men-
tioned to~ their praifc. I am going to fpeak only
of the particular Itate with which I am befl ac-
quainted. How many of the orhers are better
regulated in this rcfpecl, and how many are
worfe, I am not accurately informed. This'
6 flats

( 15^ )

. flatc (which contains lefs than 240,000 inhabi-
tants) is'dividcd into about one hundred towns.
Ihefe are fub divided into fmall portions, called
fcKool-diftrifls, fuitable for the fupport of fmall
fchools. Each of thcfe diflrids has a drawback
on the ftate-treafury for a fum, which bears a
proportion to the public taxes paid by the inha-
bitants of the diftrid, and which is about half
equal to the fupport of a fchool-mafter. But
this fum can be drawn only on condition, that
a fchool is maintained in the diftridt.

The following remarkable confequences feem
to have refulted from this provifion : There is
not perhaps in that flate, a perfon of fix years
old and of common intelledls, who cannot read ;
and very few who cannot write and caft ac-
counts ! — befides the ufeful books that are found
in every family, it is computed that there are
in the ftate about three hundred public libraries,
which have been formed by voluntary fubfcrip-
tion among the people of the diftricls and the
pariflies j— till about the year 1768, which was
more than one hundred and thirty years after

the

( t53 )

the fettlement of the ftate, no capital punifia-
ment, as I am informed, had been inflided
within its jurifdidion, nor any perfon con-
vi6ted of a capital offence; fince that period,
very few have been convided, and thofe few
are generally Europeans by birth and educati-
on ; — there is no extreme poverty in the ftate,
and no extraordinary wealth accumulated by
^individuals.

It would be abfurd to fuppofe, that Public
Inftrudion is by any means carried to the per-
feftion that it ought to be, in this or any other
ftate in the univerfe. But this experiment
proves, that good morals and equal liberty are
reciprocal caufes and effects j and that they are
both the parents of national happinefs, and of
great profperity.

All governments that lay any claim to re-
fpe£lability or juftice have profcribed the idea
of ex-poJl-fa6lo laws, or laws made after the
performance of an adion, conftituting that
adiop a crime, and punifliing the party

M for

( 154 )

for a thing that was innocent at the time
of its being done. Such laws would be fo fla-
grant a violation of natural right, that in the
French and fcvcral of the American State Con-,
ftitutions, they are folemnly interdicted in their
Declarations of Rights. This profcription is
likewife conGdered as a fundamental article of
Englifli liberty, and almofl the only one that
has not been habitually violated, within the pre-
fent century. But let us refort to reafon and
juftice, and afk what is the difference between
a violation of this article, and the obfervance
of that tremendous maxim of jurifprudence,
common to all the nations above-mentioned,
ignorantia legis neminem exciifat ?

Moft of the laws of fociety are poiitive re-
gulations, not taught by nature. Indeed, fuch
only are applicable to the fubjed now in quef-
tiyn.^^ For ignorantia Jegis can have reference
pnly to laws arifing out of fociety, in which our
natural feelings have no concern ; and where
a man is ignorant of fuch a law, he is in the
fame fituation as if the law did not exift. To

read

I

( «S5 )

read it to him from the tribunal, where he flands
arraigned for the breach of it, is to him pre-
cifely the fame thing as it would be to originate
it at the time by the fame tribunal, for the ex-
prefs purpofe of his condemnation." The law
till then, as relative to him, is not in being. He
is therefore in the fame predicament that the
fociety in general would be, under the opera-
tion of an ex-poft-fa&o law. Hence we ought
to conclude that, as it feems difficult for a go-
vernment to difpenfe with the maxim above-
mentioned, a free people ought, in their decla-
ration of rights, to provide for univerfal public
inftrudion. If they negle<5t to do this, and
mean to avoid the abfurdity of a felf-deftroying
policy, by adhering to a fyftem of juftice which
would preferve a dignity and infpire a confi-
dence worthy the name of liberty, they ought
to rejeft the maxim altogether ; and infert in
their declaration of rights, that inftruftion
alone can conftitute a duty ; and that laws can
enforce no obedience, but where they are ex-
plained.

It

( >56 )

It is truly hard and fufficicntly to be regret-
ted, that any part of fociety fhould be obliged
to yield obedience to laws to which they have
not literally and perfonally confcnted. Such is
the flate of things j it is neceffary that a ma-
jority (hould govern. If it be an evil to obey a
law to which we have'not confcnted, it is at
leaft a neceffary evilj but to compel a compli-
ance with orders which are unknown, is carry-
ing injuftice beyond the bounds of neceflity ; it
is abfurd, and even impoffible. Laws in this
cafe may be avenged, but cannot be obeyed ;
they may infpire terror, but can never com-
mand refped.

F I N 1 S.

a)^"

y

ft-uI-.V^TK^.^

JG Barlow, Joel

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